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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to avert a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of designations and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief communication showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.