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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of family resources to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in official documents: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required respect when he walked into a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the removal of titles and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Particularly stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is contained. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the complainant's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.