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The saga started with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the sea and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a area or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

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

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his duty in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.