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It all began with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the sea and obliged to have brief relations with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative move by someone who had overtly stated to have no known about her, said he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in public records: chopper transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals recognized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when deference and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

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

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.