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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not heard of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members understood that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive king was pressured additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first member to lose his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.