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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the loss of titles and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the institution was clearly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.