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This episode commenced with a single photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

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

Absent that snapshot, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who declared she was moved across the ocean and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly stated to have no heard of her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of family money to avert a drawn-out legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the royals acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has endured for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have understood, if his aides and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft travel 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 "Airmiles Andy".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he entered a room or the extreme awareness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, we now know, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

It was only in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was no one of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the well-known indecisive monarch was prodded further. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of honorifics and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just a commoner
• Past Example: The first royal to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He continues to be a counsellor of state, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Sir,

Naturally, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a monarchical property.

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 previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Maybe for the present the institutional damage to the institution is limited. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the victim's version of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-seeking and laziness that will kill the crown. In his folly, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.