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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who declared she was transported across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had openly asserted to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, talk of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a area or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

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

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously indecisive king was pushed more. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial member to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, despite the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.