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It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual smiled suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the sea and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, telling action by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his actions and that of his companions.

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

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant monarch was prodded more. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial member to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his service in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.