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

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual beamed suggestively in the rear.

Absent that snapshot, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal family?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with state resources.

Journeys were printed in official documents: helicopter travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a room or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his official documents in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of books giving more troubling details of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured further. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Now it is the loss of designations and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he comes across still defer to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

There, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the complainant's version of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.