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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family resources to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

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

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known indecisive king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Could legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.