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It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had openly claimed to have no heard of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which required deference when he entered a room or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the victim's version of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.