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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while another individual beamed knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have not heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which expected respect when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed more. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.