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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Without that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have no heard of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of family resources to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his service in the conflict

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

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

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

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.