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

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the sea and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had openly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and attentive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured more. There was no other option. The royal household had lost control of the account.

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

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

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

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

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

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

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.