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

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had openly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of family funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when deference and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.