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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have not heard of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical funds to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were documented in official documents: chopper transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he entered a room or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when deference and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's large estate at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.