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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected deference when he entered a area or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the story.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

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

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's version of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.