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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, arguably the most impactful ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed conspiratorially in the background.

Absent that photograph, captured at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and forced to have brief intimate contact with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of family resources to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew walking amiably with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the presumption which required deference when he entered a room or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a result of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was pressured more. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the story.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The message from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and notably other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.