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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had overtly stated to have not known about her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in public records: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which expected subservience when he entered a space or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members understood that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their people.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was pressured additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.