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The saga started with a isolated photograph, possibly the most impactful ever taken of a royal family member.

There stood the Baron Killyleagh, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate smiled suggestively in the backdrop.

Without that image, taken at a social event in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the assertions of a teenager who stated she was transported across the Atlantic and obliged to have cursory relations with a member of the royal family?

A curious, telling move by someone who had openly asserted to have never known about her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical money to resolve a long-delayed legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, discussions of the royals acting swiftly to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This controversy has endured for the majority of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling amiably with a disgraced financier emerged.

• Hubris: For what duration did his brothers and sisters, perhaps even his mother and father, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Problematic Connections: They must have known, if his staff and the law enforcement were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he openly hosted them to palaces.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his overspending with state resources.

Journeys were documented in official documents: private aircraft transfers from the estate to a country club and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of commercial flights, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the arrogance which demanded deference when he walked into a room or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in messages to his friends.

He managed to escape consequences while his parent, who strangely indulged him, was still alive. The monarch did at least strip him of public duties and military positions in the consequence of his disastrous and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

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

More information have again highlighted Andrew's assumption that he could avoid being untruthful about his interaction with a disgraced individual.

Society (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royal family. There was nobody 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 one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as heretofore at least complete and untarnished.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the legacy of previous monarchs, demonstrating they are useful, dutiful and responsive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in peril in an time when respect and secrecy is no longer adequate.

The Fallout

Eventually, the famously indecisive king was pushed more. There was little choice. The palace had surrendered command of the narrative.

Presently the removal of honorifics and the continued and permanent personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Reduction: Reduced to just a commoner
• Prior Instance: The primary monarch to surrender his designations in contemporary era
• Naval Career: Notably stinging given his role in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the monarch, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but not any of these will actually occur.

Future Prospects

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

Of course, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's large grounds at Sandringham.

In that place, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

This differs from his former home, where he paid a nominal rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Pending Matters

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might lawmakers request additional information
• Financial Investigation: Or investigate the waste of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his actions

Maybe for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is restricted. The narrative from the royal household was evidently that the removal of titles was what the sovereign, and especially other senior monarchical figures, desired.

A Shift in Position

No more deception that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise communication showed evidently that the institution were siding with the accuser's narrative of occurrences.

Furthermore, for the premiere occasion they finally showed regard for the survivors: "These actions are judged required, regardless of the reality that he continues to deny the accusations against him."

Ultimately it is arrogance, selfishness and laziness that will undermine the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and corruption, Andrew seems never to have grasped that lesson.