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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who stated she was transported across the sea and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly stated to have not heard of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

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

Royal Worries

The more astute family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known indecisive monarch was prodded more. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his duty in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.