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This episode commenced with a isolated 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 a companion grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who declared she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never heard of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more grim details of his actions and that of his connections.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

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

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.