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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever snapped of a royal family member.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the sea and compelled to have brief relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have never heard of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

Over a Decade of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has continued for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Additionally the entitlement which required deference when he entered a area 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 parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members realized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an age when submission and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously uncertain sovereign was pressured additional. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of titles and the ongoing and lifetime personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The primary royal to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

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

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the royal family's vast grounds at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be provided by the king with one of the royal residences and given some sort of financial support.

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

Pending Matters

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

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his behavior

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The statement from the institution was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief communication showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-seeking and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.