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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never heard of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family money to avert a protracted legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which demanded subservience when he entered a space or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously hesitant sovereign was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.