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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had openly stated to have never heard of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of family resources to avert a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he entered a space or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more grim information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain king was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the removal of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

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

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The statement from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.