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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had publicly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical funds to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the presumption which expected respect when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the famously indecisive king was pushed more. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

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

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to lose his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the Falklands war

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

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a royal residence.

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

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.