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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling move by someone who had publicly stated to have never been aware of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's funds to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in official documents: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain king was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.