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

Present was the Duke of York, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while a companion beamed suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that image, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who stated she was trafficked across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief relations with a individual of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative gesture by someone who had openly stated to have no known about her, asserted he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over a large amount of family money to avert a protracted legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly invited them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the palace to a country club and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he walked into a area or the extreme awareness about his royal titles used on his correspondence in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least strip him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, as revealed, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of books giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to undo the legacy of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their people.

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

The Fallout

Finally, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the story.

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

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The first monarch to surrender his titles in contemporary era
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the king, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but neither of these will actually happen.

What Lies Ahead

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Might parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The narrative from the palace was plainly that the removal of titles was what the monarch, and particularly other senior royals, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed evidently that the institution were aligning with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the truth that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the institution. In his folly, self-gratification and greed, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that lesson.