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It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

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

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had openly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family resources to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals understood that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously uncertain king was pushed further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were supporting the accuser's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.