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

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate grinned conspiratorially in the backdrop.

Lacking that image, captured at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who declared she was trafficked across the ocean and obliged to have cursory relations with a individual of the royal family?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had publicly asserted to have never been aware of her, asserted he could never have had intimate contact with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's resources to avert a drawn-out legal case.

Years of Disgrace

Against this backdrop, talk of the royals acting decisively to sever ties with Andrew are inaccurate. This scandal has endured for the largest portion of 15 years since that picture, and an additional image of Andrew strolling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Arrogance: To what extent did his siblings, perhaps even his relatives, realize that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable associates given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the monarchy did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his overspending with public money.

Trips were listed in royal annual reports: private aircraft flights from the estate 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

Additionally the entitlement which demanded respect when he entered a area or the extreme obsession about his honorifics used on his official documents in letters to his friends.

He could get away with it while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still living. The monarch did at least revoke him of official roles and military positions in the consequence of his catastrophic and, we now know, mendacious television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

It was only in the last two weeks that events progressed rapidly, following the issuance of biographical works giving more grim information of his actions and that of his connections.

Further disclosures have again revealed Andrew's belief that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a notorious figure.

Society (and the media) were far more perceptive of the monarchy. There was no one of any consequence to defend him, a result of all those years of presumption.

Institutional Fears

The wiser family members understood that. The key objective is to hand down the institution, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

Andrew was putting all that in peril in an era when submission and discretion is no longer sufficient.

Consequences

Eventually, the well-known indecisive king was pressured further. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of designations and the persistent and life-long personal shame that will afflict Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Reduced to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Past Example: The first royal to lose his honorifics in modern times
• Armed Forces: Especially hurtful given his service in the engagement

He is still a counsellor of state, on paper able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but neither of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

Do individuals he encounters still show respect to him? Could they still slip up and call him Sir? Will they even say Andrew,

Certainly, he is not withdrawing to an ordinary town, but to the royal family's vast estate at a royal residence.

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

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

Unresolved Issues

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

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might parliament seek further action
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Judicial Potential: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the institutional damage to the crown is contained. The statement from the royal household was plainly that the revocation of designations was what the king, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

Altered Approach

The cessation of illusion that Andrew was acting willingly. And, notably, the short announcement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the victim's narrative of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they ultimately showed regard for the victims: "The censures are deemed necessary, despite the reality that he continues to deny the claims against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-seeking and indolence that will undermine the monarchy. In his folly, self-indulgence and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have understood that reality.