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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had openly stated to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of family money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which required subservience when he walked into a space or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his service in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished 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 distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief statement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.