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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have never been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a room or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

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

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

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known uncertain king was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed evidently that the royals were siding with the complainant's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.