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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever captured of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a female youth, while a companion smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, captured at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the assertions of a teenager who said she was transported across the sea and forced to have cursory relations with a member of the monarchy?

A curious, revealing action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Considering this, talk of the royals acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were performing their duties, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly invited them to palaces.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in official documents: helicopter travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

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

He avoided accountability while his mother, who unaccountably spoiled him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the publication of books giving more troubling details of his conduct and that of his connections.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The one imperative is to transfer the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, accountable and reactive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and discretion is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but not any of these will ever happen.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the royal family's extensive estate at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be supplied by the king with one of the royal residences and given some type of financial support.

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

Outstanding Concerns

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

• Political Pressure: Will parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a police investigation into his conduct

Possibly for the present the reputational impact to the institution is limited. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the stripping of honorifics was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the first time they finally showed concern for the survivors: "These actions are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

In the end it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.