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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family money to avert a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were printed in official documents: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the presumption which demanded respect when he entered a area or the profound obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his connections.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, responsible and reactive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the account.

Currently the stripping of honorifics and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to lose his designations in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will ever happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Maybe for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The message from the palace was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were siding with the complainant's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.