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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion grinned knowingly in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no heard of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in official documents: helicopter transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which required respect when he walked into a space or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

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

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

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their people.

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

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Notably painful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of financial support.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the institution was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the accuser's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.