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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a gathering in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had overtly asserted to have never been aware of her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided millions of his mother's resources to settle a drawn-out court action.

Years of Scandal

In this context, conversations of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This affair has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and a further photo of Andrew walking amiably with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, possibly even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: chopper transfers from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the benefit of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which required deference when he walked into a room or the supreme consciousness about his honorifics used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who strangely spoiled him, was still surviving. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his contact with a disgraced individual.

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

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the loss of honorifics and the persistent and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial member to surrender his designations in recent history
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, in principle able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but neither of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Might they say Andrew,

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

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of private allowance.

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The message from the palace was plainly that the stripping of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior family members, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the short communication showed plainly that the royals were supporting the complainant's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the initial instance they finally showed concern for the victims: "The censures are judged required, despite the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.