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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate beamed knowingly in the rear.

Absent that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who said she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical resources to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

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

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease 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 disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.