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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have not heard of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were documented in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of titles and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a monarchical property.

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

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the palace was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.