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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have no heard of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a room or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the story.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.