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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of family funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were documented in official documents: chopper flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain sovereign was prodded additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the loss of designations and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.