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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have never heard of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required deference when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously hesitant sovereign was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the removal of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the complainant's narrative of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.