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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the sea and forced to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly stated to have not heard of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's funds to resolve a protracted court action.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

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

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The message from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.