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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had publicly stated to have no known about her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were printed in public records: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which expected respect when he walked into a space or the profound awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their people.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his service in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.