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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate smiled knowingly in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Notably painful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the accuser's account of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.