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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly in the rear.

Absent that image, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which expected subservience when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals understood that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant king was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of titles and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

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

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short communication showed evidently that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.