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It all began with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Without that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling action by someone who had publicly stated to have no been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical resources to resolve a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were performing their duties, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly invited them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Trips were documented in official documents: chopper transfers from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected deference when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

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

Monarchical Concerns

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

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed more. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will truly occur.

Future Prospects

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

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the waste of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the king, and notably other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the short statement showed clearly that the monarchy were siding with the accuser's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed regard for the affected individuals: "These actions are considered essential, despite the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.