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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had openly claimed to have no been aware of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical funds to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he entered a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously uncertain sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.