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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to resolve a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which required deference when he appeared in a room or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive property at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.