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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

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

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

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

Royal Worries

The wiser family members recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first royal to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

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

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.