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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while a companion beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, telling move by someone who had publicly asserted to have not heard of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of monarchical funds to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in official documents: helicopter flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required respect when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his ill-fated and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing details of his behavior and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the notoriously indecisive king was pressured further. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The message from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the victim's version of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.