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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to avert a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which expected deference when he walked into a room or the profound awareness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first member to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short announcement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.