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

Present was the Duke of York, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had openly asserted to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of family money to resolve a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which required respect when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first member to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch 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 token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The message from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.