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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have never known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's funds to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Disgrace

In this context, conversations of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, possibly even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he unabashedly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were listed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which demanded deference when he appeared in a space or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could escape lying about his relationship with a notorious figure.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the royal family. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was prodded more. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his service in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Would they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are deemed necessary, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

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