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The saga started with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Absent that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a adolescent who declared she was transported across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A curious, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never heard of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to resolve a long-delayed court action.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were printed in official documents: chopper transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the presumption which required subservience when he entered a space or the profound obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least revoke him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more disturbing particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed additional. There was little choice. The institution had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the stripping of titles and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of designations was what the monarch, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the brief announcement showed clearly that the royals were aligning with the complainant's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.