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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have not known about her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: chopper travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the loss of designations and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first monarch to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

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