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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting 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 learned that reality.