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The saga started with a solitary photograph, possibly the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, arm-in-arm a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the claims of a adolescent who stated she was moved across the ocean and forced to have brief relations with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had overtly claimed to have not been aware of her, said he could no have had intimate contact with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of monarchical money to settle a protracted legal case.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional photo of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a disgraced financier surfaced.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, maybe even his relatives, understand that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were fulfilling their roles, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to estates.
• Monetary Excess: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were documented in official documents: helicopter flights from the royal residence to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which expected subservience when he appeared in a area or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He avoided accountability while his matriarch, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of official roles and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his catastrophic and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Merely in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the release of books giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was nobody of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser royals recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least complete and untarnished.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and attentive to their citizens.

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

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant sovereign was pressured further. There was no alternative. The institution had surrendered command of the narrative.

Currently the stripping of titles and the persistent and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just a commoner
• Past Example: The primary monarch to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his duty in the Falklands war

He remains a royal advisor, on paper able to act for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will truly happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still defer to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Would they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's vast property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be supplied by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some type of financial support.

This is not his prior accommodation, where he paid a token lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could lawmakers demand more
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Perhaps for the present the institutional damage to the monarchy is contained. The statement from the institution was plainly that the revocation of titles was what the sovereign, and notably other senior royals, sought.

Altered Approach

No more illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise communication showed plainly that the institution were aligning with the victim's account of incidents.

Furthermore, for the first time they eventually showed regard for the victims: "The measures are deemed necessary, despite the truth that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-interest and inactivity that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew appears never to have learned that reality.