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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that image, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had publicly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he walked into a space or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of titles and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's large estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short statement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.