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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while another individual smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the supreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members understood that. The primary concern is to transfer the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously uncertain monarch was pushed further. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary member to surrender his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will truly occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

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

It is not his former home, 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

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.