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This episode commenced with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever snapped of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate smiled conspiratorially in the rear.

Lacking that photograph, shot at a social event in 2001, who would have believed the allegations of a teenager who said she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have cursory intimate contact with a prince of the royal family?

A curious, telling action by someone who had overtly stated to have no been aware of her, claimed he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided millions of family funds to settle a drawn-out court action.

A Long Period of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are misguided. This affair has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and another snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a notorious individual surfaced.

• Self-importance: How long did his siblings, maybe even his parents, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his aides and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable friends given he unabashedly hosted them to palaces.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Trips were documented in public records: chopper flights from the palace to a golf course and back again in time for midday meal, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the benefit of "the travel enthusiast".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the entitlement which required subservience when he entered a space or the extreme consciousness about his designations used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He avoided accountability while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The Queen did at least strip him of official roles and military positions in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the release of biographical works giving more disturbing information of his conduct and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far more perceptive of the royal family. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Institutional Fears

The more intelligent family members realized that. The one imperative is to pass on the monarchy, if not as heretofore at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to reverse the image of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are valuable, dutiful and reactive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an era when deference and privacy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Finally, the famously uncertain monarch was pushed additional. There was no other option. The royal household had surrendered command of the story.

Currently the removal of designations and the continued and lifetime public humiliation that will afflict Andrew the most.

• Reduction: Demoted to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The first member to lose his honorifics in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Particularly hurtful given his duty in the conflict

He is still a royal advisor, on paper able to stand in for the king, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will ever occur.

Coming Developments

Will people he meets still defer to him? Will they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Of course, he is not moving to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some type of private allowance.

This is not his previous residence, where he paid a minimal payment for more than 20 years, and the area is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Outstanding Concerns

The situation continues. There are still records in the hands of US Congress to be made public.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might lawmakers seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the misuse of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a criminal probe into his behavior

Perhaps for the present the harm to the monarchy to the crown is restricted. The message from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of honorifics was what the sovereign, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, sought.

Altered Approach

An end to pretence that Andrew was acting willingly. And, remarkably, the concise statement showed plainly that the royals were siding with the victim's account of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they eventually showed concern for the victims: "These actions are judged required, despite the reality that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and inactivity that will destroy the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew seems never to have understood that lesson.