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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had openly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which required respect when he entered a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the story.

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

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first member to surrender his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The message from the palace was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of events.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.