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

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to surrender his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

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 crown, but neither of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast estate at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's narrative of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.