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This episode commenced with a isolated photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while another individual smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Without that photograph, captured at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a teenager who stated she was transported across the ocean and obliged to have cursory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, telling gesture by someone who had overtly claimed to have no heard of her, claimed he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to settle a drawn-out lawsuit.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the monarchy acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and a further photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Self-importance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his staff and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Travel were documented in official documents: chopper travel from the palace to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, private flights instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

Existence of Entitlement

Furthermore the presumption which required respect when he walked into a space or the profound awareness about his designations used on his official documents in communication to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least revoke him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the consequence of his ill-fated and, as revealed, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last fortnight that events accelerated, following the issuance of books giving more disturbing information of his behavior and that of his associates.

More information have again highlighted Andrew's belief that he could get away with deceiving about his contact with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to speak up for him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Monarchical Concerns

The wiser family members realized that. The primary concern is to transfer the institution, if not as heretofore at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when submission and privacy is no longer sufficient.

The Fallout

Ultimately, the famously indecisive sovereign was pushed further. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the story.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will hurt Andrew most deeply.

• Reduction: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The initial royal to forfeit his honorifics in contemporary era
• Military Service: Notably painful given his duty in the engagement

He continues to be a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still in the succession to the throne, but neither of these will actually come to pass.

Future Prospects

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Will they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Sir,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a royal residence.

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

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

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still documents in the possession of American legislators to be disclosed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could parliament demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or examine the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the removal of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

An end to illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the royals were supporting the victim's account of occurrences.

Even more, for the first time they finally showed concern for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, regardless of the reality that he persists in refuting the allegations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that truth.