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

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had publicly asserted to have not heard of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Scandal

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

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were documented in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he walked into a space or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the famously indecisive king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.