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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who declared she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

An odd, revealing move by someone who had publicly asserted to have not known about her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of family money to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, talk of the royal family acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and an additional image of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which expected deference when he appeared in a area or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures realized that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously hesitant monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to lose his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is restricted. The statement from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and notably other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the short communication showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's version of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that lesson.