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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have never known about her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the monarchy acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the presumption which required respect when he walked into a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

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

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser royals recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain king was pressured further. There was no other option. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the stripping of titles and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.