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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of family money to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the well-known uncertain monarch was pushed more. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to lose his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's account of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.