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This episode commenced with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever captured of a royal family member.

Present was the Baron Killyleagh, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the rear.

Absent that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the sea and forced to have perfunctory intimate contact with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing action by someone who had openly claimed to have never known about her, claimed he could not have had relations with her, and yet provided a substantial sum of family resources to settle a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the monarchy acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and another image of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, possibly even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly invited them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Travel were printed in public records: private aircraft flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which required respect when he walked into a room or the supreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, deceptive media appearance six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the publication of biographical works giving more troubling details of his actions and that of his companions.

More information have again exposed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Royal Worries

The wiser monarchical figures recognized that. The primary concern is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of past sovereigns, showing they are beneficial, responsible and responsive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Eventually, the well-known hesitant monarch was pressured further. There was no alternative. The royal household had lost control of the account.

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

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a private citizen
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to lose his designations in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly stinging given his service in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, theoretically able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the throne, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Will they still slip up and call him Your Highness? Might they say Andrew,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive estate at a monarchical property.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

Matters remain unresolved. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might legislators request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the misuse of taxpayer funds
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the moment the reputational impact to the institution is contained. The statement from the institution was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior family members, sought.

Changed Stance

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's account of incidents.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they eventually showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The measures are judged required, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his folly, personal excess and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that reality.