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

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly claimed to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional image of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a space or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any importance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain king was prodded further. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the institution were supporting the accuser's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.