The saga started with a single photograph, arguably the most consequential ever taken of a individual from the royal household.
Present was the Earl of Inverness, with his arm around a teenage girl, while an associate grinned suggestively in the background.
Without that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, it would have been difficult to accept the allegations of a teenager who stated she was trafficked across the ocean and forced to have brief sexual encounters with a individual of the royal family?
A curious, indicative action by someone who had overtly stated to have never been aware of her, claimed he could never have had relations with her, and yet handed over millions of monarchical funds to avert a protracted court action.
Considering this, talk of the monarchy acting firmly to cut Andrew off are misguided. This scandal has continued for the largest portion of 15 years since that photograph, and an additional snapshot of Andrew ambling congenially with a convicted sex offender surfaced.
Travel were printed in public records: chopper flights from the estate to a sporting venue and back again in time for lunch, private flights instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "the frequent flyer".
Furthermore the entitlement which required respect when he appeared in a room or the profound consciousness about his designations used on his letterheads in letters to his friends.
He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably indulged him, was still surviving. The monarch did at least remove him of official roles and military positions in the wake of his disastrous and, we now know, mendacious media appearance six years ago.
Merely in the last fortnight that events progressed rapidly, following the release of biographical works giving more grim details of his conduct and that of his connections.
Additional revelations have again exposed Andrew's assumption that he could escape deceiving about his interaction with a disgraced individual.
The public (and the media) were far more perceptive of the royals. There was nobody of any significance to support him, a result of all those years of hubris.
The more intelligent monarchical figures understood that. The one imperative is to pass on the crown, if not as before at least intact and unblemished.
For generations the last 190 years trying to overcome the reputation of earlier rulers, demonstrating they are valuable, accountable and reactive to their subjects.
He was placing all that in jeopardy in an time when respect and privacy is no longer sufficient.
Eventually, the famously hesitant king was prodded more. There was no other option. The palace had relinquished authority of the story.
Presently the removal of designations and the continued and life-long social disgrace that will pain Andrew the most.
He remains a constitutional officer, on paper able to substitute for the monarch, and he is still eighth in line to the crown, but none of these will ever come to pass.
Will people he encounters still show respect to him? Might they still forget themselves and call him Prince? Will they even say Mr,
Certainly, he is not moving to suburbia, but to the royal family's large estate at Sandringham.
At that location, he will be provided by the monarch with one of the royal residences and given some sort of personal stipend.
It is not his previous residence, where he paid a nominal lease for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit remote, but even so it may not be sufficiently removed.
This is not over. There are still files in the hands of overseas authorities to be revealed.
Possibly for the present the harm to the monarchy to the monarchy is contained. The narrative from the institution was evidently that the removal of honorifics was what the monarch, and especially other senior family members, sought.
The cessation of deception that Andrew was acting willingly. And, significantly, the concise statement showed evidently that the royals were siding with the accuser's version of incidents.
Additionally, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the survivors: "The measures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the reality that he persists in refuting the claims against him."
Finally it is entitlement, self-interest and indolence that will kill the crown. In his stupidity, self-indulgence and greed, Andrew seems never to have grasped that truth.
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