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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured further. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

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

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.