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It all began with a isolated photograph, possibly the most impactful ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who stated she was moved across the sea and obliged to have cursory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical funds to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends 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 extravagance with public money.

Travel were listed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a area or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the removal of designations and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first member to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.