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

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

Lacking that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have not been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew ambling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Travel were documented in official documents: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which demanded deference when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an age when respect and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was pressured additional. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to lose his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was plainly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short communication showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the truth that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that reality.