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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's funds to avert a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in public records: chopper flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which required respect when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously indecisive monarch was pressured additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the story.

Currently the stripping of titles and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.