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The saga started with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who stated she was transported across the sea and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over millions of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which required deference when he walked into a space or the profound awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

People (and the journalists) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pushed further. There was no alternative. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably hurtful given his service in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

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

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

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were aligning with the victim's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.