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

There stood the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while an associate smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of family funds to settle a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and another photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory companions given he openly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Trips were printed in official documents: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the entitlement which required respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably spoiled him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to transfer the crown, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and reactive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the notoriously indecisive king was pushed more. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Presently the loss of designations and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Especially painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will ever come to pass.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he meets still show respect to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the monarchy's vast estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of private allowance.

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

Pending Matters

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The message from the royal household was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the brief announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of events.

Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The measures are judged required, regardless of the truth that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will kill the institution. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.