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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had publicly claimed to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family money to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: 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 hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which demanded subservience when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously uncertain sovereign was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

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

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.