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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly claimed to have no heard of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family funds to settle a long-delayed court action.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which demanded deference when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his correspondence in messages to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his connections.

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

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, proving they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded further. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the removal of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to lose his titles in recent history
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The message from the palace was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise communication showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that truth.