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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Absent that image, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the sea and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional image of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the presumption which expected subservience when he appeared in a space or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

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

Currently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise announcement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.