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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly stated to have not heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in public records: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pressured further. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first member to surrender his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.