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It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a party in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have not heard of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's funds to resolve a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft travel from the royal residence 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".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which required respect when he walked into a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the famously hesitant monarch was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive property 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 form of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.