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The saga started with a isolated photograph, arguably the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion smiled knowingly in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have perfunctory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly claimed to have not been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of monarchical resources to settle a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew ambling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected respect when he appeared in a room or the profound awareness about his honorifics used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known indecisive sovereign was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the removal of designations and the ongoing and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be furnished 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 nominal payment for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.