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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed knowingly in the background.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical resources to avert a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known hesitant sovereign was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the loss of titles and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to lose his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.