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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain king was pushed additional. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to surrender his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the victim's account of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.