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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a young woman, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have cursory intimate contact with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, claimed he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of his mother's funds to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, talk of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, possibly even his parents, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he walked into a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of books giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his associates.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any importance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the institution, if not as previously at least complete and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when submission and discretion is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first monarch to forfeit his honorifics in recent history
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his service in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Prince? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at Sandringham.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, 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 revealed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Possibly for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The message from the royal household was clearly that the stripping of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

Changed Stance

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the brief statement showed evidently that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will undermine the institution. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.