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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's funds to settle a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which required deference when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

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

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied 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 token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.