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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's resources to avert a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pushed further. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

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

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short communication showed plainly that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.