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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of family funds to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the well-known uncertain king was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The primary member to lose his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The censures are considered essential, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.