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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, possibly the most significant ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual grinned conspiratorially in the background.

Lacking that photograph, taken at a social event in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who said she was moved across the ocean and obliged to have brief intimate contact with a member of the royal family?

An odd, telling action by someone who had openly stated to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to avert a long-delayed lawsuit.

Years of Scandal

Considering this, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This scandal has endured for the majority of 15 years since that image, and a further image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Self-importance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his aides and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he publicly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Journeys were listed in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the convenience of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which expected deference when he appeared in a area or the profound consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in letters to his associates.

He could get away with it while his parent, who strangely pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the publication of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his actions and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could escape being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The primary concern is to pass on the monarchy, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

Consequences

Finally, the notoriously indecisive king was prodded more. There was no other option. The institution had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of titles and the continued and life-long public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first royal to surrender his titles in modern times
• Military Service: Notably stinging given his duty in the engagement

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will truly come to pass.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's vast estate at a monarchical property.

At that location, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit far, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Pending Matters

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will legislators demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is restricted. The message from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior royals, wanted.

Changed Stance

The cessation of deception that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short statement showed evidently that the monarchy were aligning with the complainant's account of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the first time they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the claims against him."

In the end it is presumption, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.