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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had publicly claimed to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he walked into a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

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

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds 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 previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, despite the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.