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

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he entered a room or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their people.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain monarch was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his service in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.