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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most significant ever captured of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling move by someone who had publicly claimed to have never heard of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's resources to settle a protracted court action.

Years of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This controversy has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his staff and the law enforcement were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required subservience when he appeared in a room or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, we now know, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

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

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unblemished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their subjects.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant sovereign was prodded further. There was no alternative. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first member to forfeit his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Particularly hurtful given his role in the Falklands war

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

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

Naturally, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the sovereign's large grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his previous residence, 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 records in the hands of US Congress to be revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Will parliament seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the waste of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were supporting the victim's version of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that reality.