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

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion grinned suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had overtly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded respect when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to lose his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.