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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned knowingly in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the sea and forced to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to avert a protracted legal case.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which expected deference when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an time when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known indecisive king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the removal of designations and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to surrender his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his service in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the accuser's account of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.