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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a adolescent who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling move by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's money to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which expected deference when he walked into a area or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members realized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Could parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed plainly that the institution were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.