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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was transported across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical resources to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected deference when he walked into a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the stripping of designations and the persistent and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's account of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.