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It all began with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

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

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have brief relations with a member of the royal family?

A strange, telling move by someone who had overtly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his connections.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Ultimately, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but neither of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large estate at Sandringham.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short statement showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the victim's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.