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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have no heard of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in public records: helicopter transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which required respect when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures understood that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the royal household was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.