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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

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

A curious, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to settle a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a room or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the removal of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first monarch to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The message from the institution was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed concern for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.