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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of family money to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required respect when he entered a area or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the removal of titles and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first royal to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

This 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 adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The statement from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that truth.