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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate beamed suggestively in the background.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A strange, revealing action by someone who had overtly claimed to have not been aware of her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded deference when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, as revealed, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members realized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the loss of titles and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast grounds at a royal residence.

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

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The message from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's version of incidents.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.