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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had openly asserted to have never heard of her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical resources to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pressured further. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the institution was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.