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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, arguably the most significant ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while another individual grinned suggestively in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who declared she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative action by someone who had publicly claimed to have no heard of her, said he could never have had relations with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical funds to avert a protracted lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are inaccurate. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew strolling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: How long did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his parents, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in royal annual reports: helicopter flights from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Furthermore the arrogance which required respect when he appeared in a space or the supreme obsession about his honorifics used on his correspondence in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his actions and that of his associates.

Additional revelations have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could get away with deceiving about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the journalists) were far ahead of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to speak up for him, a result of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute family members understood that. The primary concern is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least intact and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of past sovereigns, proving they are beneficial, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in danger in an time when deference and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no other option. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the loss of titles and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Reduced to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The primary monarch to surrender his honorifics in modern times
• Naval Career: Particularly painful given his role in the conflict

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but neither of these will actually happen.

Future Prospects

Can persons he comes across still acknowledge him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

At that location, he will be provided by the monarch 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 Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of American legislators to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or examine the improper use of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was plainly that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior royals, wanted.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the brief statement showed clearly that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of events.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that lesson.