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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that image, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who declared she was moved across the sea and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A curious, telling move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in public records: chopper flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.