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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

An odd, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which demanded deference when he walked into a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

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

Royal Worries

The more astute royals understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known hesitant king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first royal to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

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

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's vast estate at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The message from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.