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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had openly asserted to have never heard of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously uncertain king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the loss of designations and the continued and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first royal to lose his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed plainly that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.