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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a female youth, while another individual grinned suggestively in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly claimed to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of family funds to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in public records: helicopter travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which demanded subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was no one of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent royals realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and responsive to their people.

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

Consequences

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

Now it is the stripping of designations and the persistent and permanent public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will actually occur.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some sort of private allowance.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the palace was clearly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.