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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had overtly stated to have not heard of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's funds to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: private aircraft flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously uncertain king was pressured more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

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

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment 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 documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief statement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's account of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.