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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual grinned knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who declared she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a space or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was prodded more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.