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

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have cursory relations with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had publicly stated to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical funds to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly 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 walking pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which expected deference when he appeared in a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the accuser's account of occurrences.

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

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.