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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.