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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion grinned suggestively in the background.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who declared she was transported across the ocean and compelled to have cursory relations with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's money to settle a long-delayed court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable associates given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the arrogance which demanded subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously indecisive sovereign was prodded more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to lose his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some type of financial support.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The message from the institution was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short announcement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.