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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was transported across the sea and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had publicly claimed to have never been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical resources to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in official documents: helicopter flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which expected respect when he walked into a room or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

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

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.