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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate beamed conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that photograph, taken at a party in 2001, few would have credited the claims of a teenager who declared she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have brief sexual encounters with a member of the royal bloodline?

A curious, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no been aware of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of monarchical resources to resolve a protracted court action.

Over a Decade of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another photo of Andrew strolling amiably with a convicted sex offender came to light.

• Arrogance: How long did his family members, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable associates given he publicly invited them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: helicopter travel from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Then there was the entitlement which demanded respect when he appeared in a area or the extreme obsession about his designations used on his correspondence in communication to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, it is now clear, mendacious media appearance six years ago.

Latest Events

Merely in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his behavior and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with being untruthful about his interaction with a notorious figure.

The public (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as before at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

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

The Fallout

Eventually, the well-known hesitant sovereign was pushed further. There was no other option. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of designations and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary royal to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still acknowledge him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

Of course, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's extensive property at a royal residence.

In that place, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some type of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Could parliament request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the moment the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the sovereign, and notably other senior family members, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short statement showed plainly that the monarchy were siding with the complainant's account of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the institution. In his foolishness, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that truth.