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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had overtly claimed to have not been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a space or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded additional. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of titles and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to lose his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.