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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the sea and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, telling move by someone who had overtly stated to have never heard of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royals acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which demanded respect when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his connections.

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

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded additional. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to surrender his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the Falklands war

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

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, 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

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The statement from the palace was evidently that the removal of titles was what the king, and notably other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.