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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never heard of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to settle a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were listed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the removal of designations was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.