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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's money to settle a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The message from the royal household was clearly that the removal of titles was what the king, and notably other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.