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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the rear.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was pressured further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.