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

Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a female youth, while a companion smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Absent that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A curious, revealing move by someone who had publicly claimed to have never heard of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out court action.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he openly invited them to estates.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in official documents: private aircraft travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which required subservience when he appeared in a space or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his conduct and that of his connections.

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

People (and the media) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser monarchical figures realized that. The key objective is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was prodded further. There was little choice. The palace had lost control of the story.

Now it is the loss of designations and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The first member to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the estate properties and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his former home, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still documents in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the palace was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they finally showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.