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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of family funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which required respect when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more grim details of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute royals understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant king was prodded additional. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

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

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.