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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded deference when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first royal to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

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

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.