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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Lacking that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he entered a space or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

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

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously hesitant sovereign was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the removal of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the accuser's account of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.