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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had publicly claimed to have no heard of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which expected subservience when he entered a space or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first royal to surrender his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief communication showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.