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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the sea and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of family resources to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the profound awareness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously hesitant monarch was prodded more. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.