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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never heard of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's funds to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were documented in public records: helicopter travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.