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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in official documents: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he appeared in a space or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.