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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair 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.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his service in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

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

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.