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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful 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 background.

Without that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of designations and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The message from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.