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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of family resources to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a room or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Currently the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.