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

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have no heard of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a space or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the loss of titles and the continued and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary royal to surrender his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Might lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.