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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing action by someone who had publicly asserted to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's funds to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were documented in public records: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the presumption which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

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

Aftermath

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was prodded further. There was no alternative. The palace had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast estate at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Political Pressure: Could legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise announcement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed concern for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Finally it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.