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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that image, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had overtly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in public records: chopper travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a room or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was prodded additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive property at a royal residence.

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

This is not his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the complainant's version of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.