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

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned knowingly in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's funds to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which expected subservience when he entered a space or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, showing they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Andrew,

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

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.