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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not heard of her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family funds to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: chopper flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes 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 extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any significance to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The wiser family members understood that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, 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

Eventually, the well-known uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

Presently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and permanent public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to lose his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast property at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is contained. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that truth.