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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which demanded respect when he walked into a space or the profound obsession about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members understood that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain king was prodded further. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the victim's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.