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

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the background.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family funds to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded respect when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

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

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their people.

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

Aftermath

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

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

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

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.