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

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion beamed knowingly in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had overtly asserted to have no known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical resources to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required deference when he walked into a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his connections.

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

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to surrender his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

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

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This differs from his former home, 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.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.