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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual beamed suggestively in the rear.

Without that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of family funds to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

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

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The statement from the palace was evidently that the removal of designations was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief statement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.