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

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion beamed knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, 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 sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, asserted he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was prodded more. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the palace was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.