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It all began with a isolated photograph, perhaps the most consequential ever taken of a member of the monarchy.

There stood the Duke of York, standing closely beside a teenage girl, while an associate smiled suggestively in the background.

Without that photograph, shot at a gathering in 2001, few would have credited the allegations of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the ocean and compelled to have cursory relations with a member of the royal bloodline?

A strange, indicative move by someone who had publicly stated to have not heard of her, said he could not have had intimate contact with her, and yet provided a large amount of his mother's funds to settle a protracted legal case.

Over a Decade of Controversy

Against this backdrop, conversations of the royals acting decisively to cut Andrew off are wide of the mark. This scandal has continued for the better part of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.

• Self-importance: For what duration did his family members, possibly even his mother and father, understand that Andrew was so arrogant?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his staff and the authorities were doing their jobs, that he had some deeply disreputable friends given he openly welcomed them to royal residences.
• Financial Extravagance: If the household did not know about his personal conduct, they certainly knew about his extravagance with public money.

Trips were listed in official documents: chopper flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, exclusive air travel instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which required deference when he entered a room or the extreme consciousness about his royal titles used on his official documents in communication to his associates.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The Queen did at least remove him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive public statement six years ago.

Current Situation

It was only in the last fortnight that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more troubling information of his behavior and that of his connections.

Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could escape deceiving about his relationship with a disgraced individual.

The public (and the press) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to defend him, a outcome of all those years of presumption.

Royal Worries

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least complete and unstained.

For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, showing they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their citizens.

He was placing all that in jeopardy in an era when respect and secrecy is no longer sufficient.

Aftermath

Eventually, the notoriously hesitant monarch was pushed more. There was little choice. The institution had lost control of the narrative.

Now it is the removal of titles and the ongoing and life-long personal shame that will pain Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just a commoner
• Historical Precedent: The initial royal to surrender his honorifics in recent history
• Military Service: Especially stinging given his role in the engagement

He continues to be a constitutional officer, in principle able to stand in for the sovereign, and he is still in the lineage to the crown, but none of these will ever occur.

Future Prospects

Will people he meets still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Sir? Would they say Sir,

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

There, he will be provided by the king with one of the grace and favour houses and given some sort of personal stipend.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token payment for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.

Unresolved Issues

The situation continues. There are still records in the possession of American legislators to be revealed.

• Parliamentary Interest: Might parliament request additional information
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of state resources
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a police investigation into his actions

Maybe for the moment the institutional damage to the crown is restricted. The narrative from the palace was clearly that the revocation of honorifics was what the monarch, and notably other senior family members, sought.

A Shift in Position

The cessation of pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the concise announcement showed evidently that the institution were supporting the victim's narrative of occurrences.

Additionally, for the initial instance they eventually showed concern for the survivors: "The censures are considered essential, despite the fact that he persists in refuting the accusations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, selfishness and laziness that will kill the monarchy. In his foolishness, self-indulgence and venality, Andrew appears never to have learned that lesson.