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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have no heard of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to settle a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his parents, realize 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 companions given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously uncertain monarch was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his service in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.