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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever captured of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a female youth, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that snapshot, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a teenager who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have never heard of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of family resources to avert a protracted lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Arrogance: For what duration did his siblings, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he publicly welcomed them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Journeys were documented in public records: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Additionally the entitlement which required respect when he entered a space or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the wake of his catastrophic and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the publication of accounts giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his companions.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was no one of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was pressured more. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the stripping of designations and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his designations in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the conflict

He continues to be a constitutional officer, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever occur.

What Lies Ahead

Do individuals he meets still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's large property at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still documents in the custody of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was evidently that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short communication showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that reality.