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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to resolve a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which demanded subservience when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the removal of titles and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.