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This episode commenced with a single photograph, possibly the most consequential ever captured of a royal family member.

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

Without that image, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a adolescent who said she was moved across the Atlantic and compelled to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

An odd, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have no been aware of her, asserted he could no have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to settle a long-delayed court action.

A Long Period of Scandal

Considering this, discussions of the monarchy acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have realized, if his aides and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were printed in royal annual reports: private aircraft transfers from the royal residence to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he appeared in a room or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who unaccountably indulged him, was still living. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last 14 days that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing details of his actions and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could avoid deceiving about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the press) were far ahead of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any importance to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The more astute monarchical figures recognized that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their people.

His actions endangered all that in danger in an age when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

Aftermath

Finally, the notoriously uncertain monarch was pressured additional. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the account.

Now it is the stripping of titles and the ongoing and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a private citizen
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his role in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the throne, but none of these will actually come to pass.

Coming Developments

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

Certainly, he is not moving to a common area, but to the royal family's extensive grounds at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some form of financial support.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the possession of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the crown is limited. The narrative from the palace was evidently that the revocation of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, notably, the brief statement showed plainly that the institution were siding with the victim's narrative of events.

Even more, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the survivors: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the truth that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.