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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not known about her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals understood that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded additional. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the removal of designations and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his titles in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.