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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family funds to settle a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which required respect when he appeared in a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

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

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the royal household was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.