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The saga started with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual beamed knowingly in the background.

Without that snapshot, shot at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was moved across the sea and forced to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew strolling congenially with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his parents, realize that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable companions given he unabashedly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in public records: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which required subservience when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least revoke him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Royal Worries

The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of previous monarchs, proving they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

Andrew was putting all that in danger in an age when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously hesitant monarch was pressured more. There was no other option. The palace had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The primary royal to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Prince? Would they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's vast property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of personal stipend.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could lawmakers demand more
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise statement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the truth that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is entitlement, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.