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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were printed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pushed more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the short statement showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.