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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly claimed to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of family resources to resolve a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Finally, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first member to lose his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short announcement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.