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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion beamed knowingly in the background.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were listed in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which expected respect when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain monarch was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.