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

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which demanded deference when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.