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It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Absent that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a space or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, responsible and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant monarch was pushed further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of titles and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first royal to surrender his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his service in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the accuser's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.