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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have never heard of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to avert a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the famously uncertain king was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

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

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

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

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.