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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly asserted to have no heard of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were documented in official documents: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he walked into a space or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

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

Society (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had lost control of the story.

Presently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial royal to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

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

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the present the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior royals, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the complainant's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The censures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.