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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned knowingly in the background.

Without that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the sea and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical money to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

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

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at Sandringham.

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

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.