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It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected respect when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured additional. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first royal to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's account of events.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.