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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while another individual grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had publicly stated to have not heard of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

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

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The censures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.