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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, telling action by someone who had publicly asserted to have not known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant king was pushed further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the story.

Presently the removal of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief communication showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.