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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while a companion grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory relations with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, telling move by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to resolve a protracted court action.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pressured additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were aligning with the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.