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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that image, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have not known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical money to settle a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.