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

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that image, shot at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the sea and obliged to have perfunctory intimate contact with a prince of the monarchy?

An odd, revealing gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have not known about her, said he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a large amount of monarchical funds to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the law enforcement were performing their duties, that he had some extremely unsavory associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in public records: private aircraft flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which expected deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least strip him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of books giving more grim particulars of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could get away with lying about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far in advance of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an era when submission and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant monarch was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Presently the loss of designations and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will afflict Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial monarch to surrender his titles in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially stinging given his service in the engagement

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still acknowledge him? Could they still forget themselves and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be provided by the sovereign with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

It is not his former home, where he paid a minimal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament demand more
• Financial Investigation: Or scrutinize the waste of taxpayer funds
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the royal household was clearly that the removal of designations was what the king, and especially other senior family members, wanted.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the initial instance they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-seeking and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.