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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who declared she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant monarch was prodded additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to lose his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive property at a monarchical property.

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

This is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.