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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed knowingly in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a young woman who declared she was moved across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had openly claimed to have never heard of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of his mother's funds to avert a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, discussions of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another snapshot of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft travel from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded deference when he walked into a area or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his disastrous and, as revealed, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid being untruthful about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members understood that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known uncertain monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the account.

Presently the loss of titles and the persistent and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The first royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the conflict

He remains a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast grounds at Sandringham.

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

It is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Maybe for the time being the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The message from the royal household was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and particularly other senior family members, desired.

Changed Stance

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.