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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously indecisive monarch was prodded additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the loss of titles and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's large grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the accuser's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.