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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Without that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who declared she was transported across the sea and forced to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of family resources to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which expected subservience when he entered a room or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.