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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have never known about her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which demanded deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed clearly that the institution were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.