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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the sea and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical resources to avert a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will ever happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.