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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, revealing action by someone who had openly asserted to have not known about her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

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

Royal Worries

The wiser family members realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary royal to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.