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

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a long-delayed legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.