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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that image, captured at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly stated to have no heard of her, asserted he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical funds to avert a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Controversy

Considering this, discussions of the royal family acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew ambling congenially with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he unabashedly welcomed them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Travel were listed in official documents: helicopter transfers from the royal residence to a country club and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Additionally the entitlement which expected subservience when he appeared in a room or the profound awareness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing details of his conduct and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

People (and the media) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

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

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of past sovereigns, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and attentive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously uncertain sovereign was prodded additional. There was no alternative. The institution had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the removal of designations and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Demoted to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The primary member to forfeit his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Notably stinging given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a counsellor of state, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to a common area, but to the royal family's large estate at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of financial support.

This is not his former home, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit far, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the possession of US Congress to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the removal of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief communication showed plainly that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of incidents.

Even more, for the first time they ultimately showed concern for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, despite the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the institution. In his stupidity, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.