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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were listed in public records: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he walked into a area or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their people.

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

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was pressured additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the account.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

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

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

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.