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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have cursory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had overtly stated to have no been aware of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected deference when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

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

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.