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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that image, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly claimed to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to settle a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he entered a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, showing they are useful, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the accuser's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.