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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have not been aware of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in public records: chopper flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which required deference when he walked into a area or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim information of his actions and that of his associates.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the story.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

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

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise communication showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.