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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Without that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's resources to settle a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which required respect when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The censures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.