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

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that image, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a protracted court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a area or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.