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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned knowingly in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, telling action by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first royal to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, 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.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.