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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling move by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's money to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in public records: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which required deference when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely 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 companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first member to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a royal residence.

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

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.