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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever snapped of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual smiled knowingly in the background.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a adolescent who said she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have brief relations with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could no have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's money to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his family members, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were listed in royal annual reports: chopper travel from the estate to a country club and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the arrogance which required deference when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still surviving. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more disturbing particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser royals understood that. The key objective is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

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

Consequences

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the loss of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Of course, he is not moving to a common area, but to the monarchy's vast property at a royal residence.

There, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of personal stipend.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's account of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, despite the reality that he continues to deny the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.