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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly stated to have never heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which required subservience when he walked into a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the present the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the accuser's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.