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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no heard of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to settle a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Trips were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which demanded subservience when he entered a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when respect and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The royal household had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the continued and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large estate at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is contained. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the royals were supporting the victim's version of incidents.

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

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.