The Prince Andrew affair has shown us how fragile the monarchy really is | Martin Kettle

This started as a scandal about one man's behaviour. It could end up a story about the kind of country we choose to be

If a uniformed flunkey holding aloft a vellum scroll had stood in front of Buckingham Palace and read it out for the benefit of the world's cameras on Tuesday afternoon, the message from the official proclamation would have boiled down to this: The royal embarrassment is over. Long live the royal embarrassment."

This week's out of court settlement of Virginia Giuffre's sexual assault claims against Prince Andrew is not the tidy closure of a tawdry affair. The sleazy content of the allegations and the prince's boneheaded response to them have not merely discredited him personally - though they have done that so conclusively that only someone as obstinate as he is could think otherwise. They have also shaken the monarchy itself, and at an extremely delicate time - one that is certainly not over yet and that may continue for at least a decade.