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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, telling move by someone who had overtly claimed to have never been aware of her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in official documents: helicopter transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his behavior and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, responsible and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive sovereign was pushed more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the monarchy's extensive grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, desired.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed regard for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

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