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

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

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

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have not known about her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's resources to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more grim information of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pushed further. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the loss of titles and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.