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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned knowingly in the rear.

Absent that image, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling action by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's resources to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more grim details of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known uncertain king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the story.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The message from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.