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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have no been aware of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which expected deference when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute family members recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to surrender his designations in recent history
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.