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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Without that photograph, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of titles and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

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

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

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the removal of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.