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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Without that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling move by someone who had publicly claimed to have not been aware of her, asserted he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in official documents: helicopter travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which expected respect when he walked into a area or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The primary concern is to pass on the crown, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an age when respect and privacy is no longer adequate.

Consequences

Finally, the famously uncertain sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably painful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive property at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some sort of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.