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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of family resources to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

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

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.