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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had publicly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he entered a room or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort 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 remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.