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It all began with a single photograph, perhaps the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate beamed knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that image, shot at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly stated to have never known about her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid a large amount of monarchical funds to settle a drawn-out legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were listed in official documents: chopper flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the arrogance which demanded respect when he walked into a room or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the media) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the crown, if not as heretofore at least intact and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when deference and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known uncertain king was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Currently the removal of titles and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to forfeit his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Particularly painful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and indolence that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that lesson.