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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that image, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have brief intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a room or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known indecisive monarch was prodded more. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the account.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary royal to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his role in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: 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 narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.