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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have never been aware of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to settle a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which demanded subservience when he appeared in a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

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

Recent Developments

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

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

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

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The message from the institution was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the complainant's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.