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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have cursory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required deference when he walked into a room or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously hesitant sovereign was prodded further. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.