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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not heard of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known uncertain sovereign was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The measures are judged required, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.