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

In the frame appeared the Duke of York, with his arm around a female youth, while another individual beamed suggestively in the rear.

Without that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a young woman who declared she was moved across the sea and obliged to have cursory sexual encounters with a prince of the royal bloodline?

A strange, telling action by someone who had openly claimed to have no known about her, asserted he could never have had sex with her, and yet handed over a substantial sum of his mother's funds to avert a drawn-out lawsuit.

A Long Period of Disgrace

In this context, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to distance themselves from Andrew are misguided. This controversy has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew walking congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Hubris: For what duration did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, know that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have realized, if his employees and the authorities were fulfilling their roles, that he had some highly questionable companions given he unabashedly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Trips were printed in public records: private aircraft travel from the estate to a golf course and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of commercial flights, all for the benefit of "the frequent flyer".

World of Deference

Additionally the arrogance which required respect when he appeared in a area or the supreme awareness about his designations used on his letterheads in communication to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his mother, who strangely spoiled him, was still living. The sovereign did at least remove him of public duties and honorary colonelcies in the aftermath of his ill-fated and, as revealed, mendacious public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

Just in the last 14 days that events progressed rapidly, following the release of accounts giving more grim particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

Society (and the press) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was not a single person of any significance to speak up for him, a consequence of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The key objective is to transfer the monarchy, if not as previously at least intact and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to undo the reputation of earlier rulers, proving they are valuable, dutiful and responsive to their people.

He was placing all that in danger in an age when submission and privacy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously uncertain king was prodded additional. There was little choice. The royal household had relinquished authority of the narrative.

Now it is the stripping of honorifics and the ongoing and lifetime social disgrace that will pain Andrew most deeply.

• Downgrading: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Historical Precedent: The initial member to forfeit his titles in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Especially painful given his service in the conflict

He is still a counsellor of state, theoretically able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still in the lineage to the monarchy, but none of these will actually happen.

Coming Developments

Will people he comes across still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Your Highness? Will they even say Sir,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the monarchy's large grounds at a royal residence.

At that location, he will be furnished by the king with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still files in the hands of US Congress to be disclosed.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Monetary Probe: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a criminal probe into his actions

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the institution is restricted. The statement from the institution was clearly that the removal of titles was what the king, and particularly other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more illusion that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the concise communication showed evidently that the royals were supporting the accuser's version of occurrences.

Additionally, for the premiere occasion they ultimately showed consideration for the affected individuals: "The censures are judged required, regardless of the reality that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is presumption, selfishness and indolence that will destroy the crown. In his folly, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.