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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family money to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a area or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.