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It all began with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim details of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously hesitant monarch was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to lose his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast property at Sandringham.

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

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.