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It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which demanded subservience when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the loss of designations and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

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

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

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.