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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the rear.

Without that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never known about her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of family resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which required deference when he appeared in a space or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the well-known uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, 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 far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is contained. The statement from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.