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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion smiled suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never heard of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical resources to avert a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were printed in public records: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he walked into a area or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured further. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.