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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the sea and compelled to have cursory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never heard of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical resources to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were printed in official documents: chopper flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.