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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

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

Without that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical resources to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence 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".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the account.

Currently the loss of titles and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a royal residence.

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

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.