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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have never been aware of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a space or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the story.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

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

In that place, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's version of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.