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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly asserted to have no known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which expected deference when he appeared in a room or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously uncertain king was pushed additional. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

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

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The statement from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's version of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.