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

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who declared she was transported across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly asserted to have not known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

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

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

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

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known hesitant monarch was pushed further. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the removal of designations and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive estate at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his prior accommodation, 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 adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The message from the palace was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were siding with the complainant's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.