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

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual beamed knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have no heard of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of family money to avert a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which expected deference when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his connections.

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

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of titles and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first member to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at a monarchical property.

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

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

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of events.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, despite the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.