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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed knowingly in the background.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical funds to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he appeared in a room or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

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

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

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

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.