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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Without that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were documented in official documents: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required respect when he walked into a area or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are useful, responsible and attentive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The message from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.