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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have never heard of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to settle a protracted legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease 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 possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.