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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have no been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their people.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to surrender his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.