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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to settle a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known uncertain king was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.