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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had overtly stated to have no heard of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were listed in official documents: chopper travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which demanded subservience when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an era when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive monarch was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the narrative.

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

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.