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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal family?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, claimed he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical resources to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in official documents: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the entitlement which expected respect when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when respect and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain sovereign was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first member to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

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 actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk 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 disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

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

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.