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It all began with a solitary photograph, perhaps the most significant ever snapped of a individual from the royal household.

In the frame appeared the Earl of Inverness, standing closely beside a young woman, while an associate smiled knowingly in the backdrop.

Without that image, taken at a gathering in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the claims of a young woman who said she was transported across the Atlantic and compelled to have brief intimate contact with a individual of the monarchy?

A curious, indicative move by someone who had openly stated to have no been aware of her, asserted he could not have had sex with her, and yet paid millions of his mother's money to resolve a drawn-out court action.

Years of Controversy

Considering this, conversations of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are inaccurate. This affair has persisted for the majority of 15 years since that image, and an additional image of Andrew strolling congenially with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, possibly even his parents, know that Andrew was so self-entitled?
• Questionable Associations: They must have known, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some extremely unsavory friends given he openly hosted them to royal residences.
• Monetary Excess: If the family did not know about his sexual proclivities, they certainly knew about his wastefulness with state resources.

Journeys were printed in public records: chopper transfers from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for dining, exclusive air travel instead of scheduled services, all for the convenience of "Airmiles Andy".

Existence of Entitlement

Then there was the arrogance which expected deference when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his correspondence in communication to his personal acquaintances.

He avoided accountability while his mother, who inexplicably indulged him, was still alive. The sovereign did at least remove him of royal responsibilities and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his catastrophic and, it is now clear, untruthful television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Just in the last two weeks that events accelerated, following the publication of accounts giving more troubling particulars of his conduct and that of his associates.

More information have again exposed Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his relationship with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to support him, a outcome of all those years of arrogance.

Institutional Fears

The more astute royals realized that. The one imperative is to hand down the institution, if not as previously at least whole and unstained.

Over time the last 190 years trying to overcome the image of earlier rulers, proving they are beneficial, dutiful and attentive to their subjects.

He was placing all that in peril in an age when deference and discretion is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the notoriously hesitant king was pressured further. There was little choice. The royal household had surrendered command of the narrative.

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

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The initial monarch to forfeit his designations in modern times
• Military Service: Especially painful given his service in the Falklands war

He continues to be a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the sovereign, and he is still in the succession to the monarchy, but none of these will truly come to pass.

What Lies Ahead

Will people he encounters still acknowledge him? Might they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Might they say Mr,

Certainly, he is not retiring to an ordinary town, but to the sovereign's large grounds at Sandringham.

There, he will be supplied by the monarch with one of the estate properties and given some form of personal stipend.

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

Outstanding Concerns

Matters remain unresolved. There are still records in the custody of overseas authorities to be made public.

• Political Pressure: Could legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or investigate the improper use of public money
• Legal Possibility: There may even be a criminal probe into his conduct

Perhaps for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the stripping of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior monarchical figures, wanted.

A Shift in Position

No more pretence that Andrew was making the choice himself. And, remarkably, the short statement showed evidently that the monarchy were supporting the complainant's version of incidents.

Additionally, for the first time they finally showed regard for the survivors: "The censures are judged required, despite the truth that he maintains his innocence of the accusations against him."

Finally it is arrogance, self-interest and inactivity that will kill the crown. In his folly, personal excess and corruption, Andrew gives the impression never to have learned that reality.