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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who declared she was transported across the ocean and forced to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have never heard of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical resources to resolve a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were listed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a area or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more troubling information of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures understood that. The key objective is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, dutiful and reactive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the continued and permanent public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his role in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

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

There, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent 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 overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, despite the truth that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.