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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical money to settle a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his role in the Falklands war

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

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.