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

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion smiled suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family money to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in public records: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which required respect when he appeared in a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in peril in an era when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the famously indecisive king was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will truly happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

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

This differs from 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 far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the present the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the victim's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.