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

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate smiled suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had openly asserted to have no known about her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical resources to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were documented in official documents: helicopter transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required subservience when he walked into a space or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an time when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously hesitant king was prodded further. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the removal of titles and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his service in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's extensive property at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The statement from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, sought.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.