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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the sea and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have no heard of her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to avert a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded deference when he entered a space or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known uncertain sovereign was prodded further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the story.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

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

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the accuser's account of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.