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

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a space or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously uncertain king was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.