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

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion grinned knowingly in the background.

Without that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, telling action by someone who had openly asserted to have never been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected deference when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members realized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously hesitant sovereign was prodded more. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the story.

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

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

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

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.