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It all began with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have no heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded subservience when he appeared in a room or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his associates.

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

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pressured further. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the loss of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first royal to lose his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The message from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short statement showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.