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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling move by someone who had publicly claimed to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in public records: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which expected respect when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

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

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.