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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to avert a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which required respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more grim details of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive 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 royals recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known indecisive king was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the loss of designations and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.