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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned suggestively in the rear.

Without that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who declared she was transported across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly claimed to have not heard of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's funds to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in public records: chopper transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required respect when he walked into a area or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the palace was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.