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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly 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 trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive king was pressured more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed concern for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.