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It all began with a solitary photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a royal family member.

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

Lacking that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who stated she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's resources to settle a long-delayed lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were listed in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which demanded deference when he entered a area or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

People (and the press) were far in advance of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute family members understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are useful, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Finally, the famously hesitant monarch was pushed additional. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the account.

Now it is the removal of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to act for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a royal residence.

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

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his behavior

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The statement from the palace was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed clearly that the institution were aligning with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed concern for the victims: "These actions are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and inactivity that will destroy the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew appears never to have understood that lesson.