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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, telling action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical funds to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

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

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

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

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The statement from the palace was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.