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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who declared she was moved across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly claimed to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew strolling amiably with a notorious individual came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his staff and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Travel were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the arrogance which expected respect when he entered a room or the profound obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more disturbing particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of earlier rulers, proving they are useful, accountable and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an time when submission and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously hesitant king was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Currently the stripping of designations and the continued and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Particularly painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the monarchy, but not any of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's extensive estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Might parliament demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief communication showed plainly that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's version of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that truth.