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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the sea and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no heard of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected subservience when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was pressured further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The message from the palace was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.