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

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

Without that snapshot, taken at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a young woman who said she was moved across the Atlantic and forced to have cursory sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly claimed to have not been aware of her, said he could not have had sex with her, and yet provided a large amount of monarchical money to avert a long-delayed court action.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are wide of the mark. This controversy has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and a further snapshot of Andrew walking pleasantly with a disgraced financier came to light.

• Hubris: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable associates given he openly hosted them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the household did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with public money.

Travel were printed in official documents: private aircraft flights from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the travel enthusiast".

World of Deference

Furthermore the entitlement which demanded subservience when he walked into a space or the extreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his parent, who inexplicably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of official roles and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events sped up, following the release of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his companions.

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

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of presumption.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent royals recognized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, accountable and responsive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and discretion is no longer enough.

Consequences

Ultimately, the well-known hesitant king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the removal of titles and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The initial monarch to surrender his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially hurtful given his duty in the Falklands war

He is still a constitutional officer, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he encounters still defer to him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large property at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be furnished by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still documents in the custody of overseas authorities to be revealed.

• Political Pressure: Will lawmakers seek further action
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Possibly for the time being the reputational impact to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was plainly that the stripping of titles was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

An end to pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the victim's narrative of events.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the fact that he persists in refuting the claims against him."

Ultimately it is entitlement, self-seeking and laziness that will destroy the crown. In his stupidity, self-gratification and greed, Andrew appears never to have understood that reality.