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It all began with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated 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 openly claimed to have no known about her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family money to resolve a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has continued for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a area or the supreme awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the press) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive king was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were supporting the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.