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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a room or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the short announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's narrative of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that truth.