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The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

In the frame appeared the Baron Killyleagh, with his arm around a young woman, while an associate grinned knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that snapshot, taken at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the sea and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling move by someone who had openly stated to have no known about her, claimed he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a substantial sum of family resources to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

A Long Period of Scandal

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royal family acting firmly to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This scandal has persisted for the largest portion of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew walking congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his family members, maybe even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he publicly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the family did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with taxpayer funds.

Trips were listed in public records: helicopter flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of scheduled services, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which demanded subservience when he appeared in a room or the profound consciousness about his honorifics used on his correspondence in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He managed to escape consequences while his matriarch, who strangely pampered him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Latest Events

Just in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim information of his actions and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could avoid lying about his contact with a convicted criminal.

People (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was not a single person of any importance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members recognized that. The key objective is to pass on the crown, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the legacy of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

Andrew was putting all that in jeopardy in an age when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously hesitant sovereign was pressured more. There was little choice. The palace had relinquished authority of the account.

Currently the removal of honorifics and the persistent and permanent personal shame that will hurt Andrew the most.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The first monarch to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Naval Career: Especially stinging given his service in the Falklands war

He is still a royal advisor, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Do individuals he encounters still defer to him? Might they still slip up and call him Sir? Might they say Andrew,

Naturally, he is not withdrawing to a common area, but to the sovereign's large grounds at a monarchical property.

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

This differs from his prior accommodation, where he paid a minimal rent for more than 20 years, and the county is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still files in the custody of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Could legislators request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or scrutinize the waste of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Perhaps for the present the reputational impact to the monarchy is limited. The statement from the institution was evidently that the revocation of designations was what the king, and particularly other senior royals, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's version of events.

Even more, for the premiere occasion they finally showed consideration for the survivors: "These actions are considered essential, regardless of the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

Finally it is entitlement, selfishness and indolence that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, personal excess and venality, Andrew gives the impression never to have grasped that reality.