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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which expected deference when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

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

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first member to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his duty in the Falklands war

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

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive property at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.