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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual beamed suggestively in the background.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of family money to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

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

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

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.