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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his actions and that of his connections.

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

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, responsible and responsive to their people.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the victims: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.