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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's resources to settle a protracted legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in public records: helicopter transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the complainant's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.