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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while another individual smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, shot at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a adolescent who stated she was transported across the ocean and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

An odd, indicative gesture by someone who had publicly asserted to have never known about her, claimed he could no have had relations with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of his mother's money to avert a protracted court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

In this context, discussions of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his brothers and sisters, maybe even his parents, realize that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly invited them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Travel were listed in public records: helicopter travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which expected respect when he walked into a area or the supreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his letterheads in communication to his associates.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the issuance of biographical works giving more troubling information of his actions and that of his associates.

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

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to hand down the crown, if not as previously at least complete and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, showing they are useful, accountable and reactive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Finally, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed additional. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the ongoing and permanent social disgrace that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first monarch to lose his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his service in the engagement

He remains a constitutional officer, in principle able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but not any of these will ever come to pass.

Future Prospects

Will people he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast property at Sandringham.

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

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit distant, but even so it may not be far enough.

Pending Matters

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

• Parliamentary Interest: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The narrative from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

Altered Approach

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the short announcement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the complainant's narrative of occurrences.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are judged required, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have learned that truth.