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It all began with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the institution was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.