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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly claimed to have never been aware of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a area or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the removal of titles and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.