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It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand 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 welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known uncertain king was pressured more. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the institution was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the complainant's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.