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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of monarchical resources to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The message from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.