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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion smiled knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which expected subservience when he entered a area or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his companions.

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

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded more. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the removal of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.