The Queen’s Secret Money Matters Highlighted in Prince Andrew’s Payment

The quiet cobbled streets of Mayfair are home to unpretentious white houses that are far from spectacular, but this seemingly innocuous-looking property should be the Queen’s concern right now.

last week, Sun Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, has announced that she has purchased a home made up of two apartments to be combined into one for $8.6 million from the Grosvenor Estate of the Duke of Westminster. (Brief PSA: The Duke) is 31, the godfather of Prince George, worth $17.6 billion, and unmarried).

The purchase was “a long-term investment for their daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie,” according to the report.

Two blood princesses handed over a chunk of Mayfair estate? That should sound right, except for the fact that we’re talking about Fergie here. He told U.S. television viewers that he was “continuously on the verge of financial collapse.”

On the heels of Fergie and her enigmatic new millionaire affair came news of her ex-husband, current housemate and outcast extraordinaire. prince andrew told Paid whistleblower only Virigina Giuffrewhich launched a civil sexual abuse allegation against him last year, between $5.2 million and $8.74 million of the reported $21 million reported to settle the lawsuit. I have always denied the allegations.)

Taken together, both Fergie’s head-scratching seven-figure purchase and Andrew’s lawsuit payments have revived the mystery surrounding not only their financial dealings, but the royal family at large.

The progress of both the home and payment to Virginia highlights a very thorny issue. queen And henceforth, when Prince Charles takes the throne.

See, no one knows outside Buckingham Palace Queen and family values, where most of their money comes from and what they spend it on. And if not dealt with first, there could be a very serious future crisis for the royal family in the years to come.

It looks like this: queen And to this day, the royal family receives special treatment from the British government regarding taxes, wills, etc., all the while being allowed to hide the true extent of their personal wealth.

For over a century, the British have swallowed a near-total blackout when it comes to the Windsor family and their purse-stuffs, but how long did it last?

Similarly, the Windsor family is almost completely exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and reportedly enjoys “special protection” from the British National Archives, and according to the Privy Council, as of 2019, the Queen and her family There were 3,629 sealed files associated with . member.

Again, in an era where people not only want but expect greater transparency and openness from public figures, the Brits are following this one rule for themselves / one for everyone else. How long will we accept the unfairness of one rule?

Where does the royal money come from?

Let’s start with the basics. The royal family has three sources of income.

Sovereign Grant

First, there is the Sovereign Grant. This is the percentage of the Crown’s estate’s earnings that the government gives back to the royal family to pay for the maintenance of facilities such as Windsor Castle, as well as public expenses such as civil servants and travel expenses. (Thus, Grant’s cash may pay William and Kate, the private secretaries of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but not the nannies.)

implication principality

A second source of income comes from the accompanying principalities (Cornwall and Lancaster), which together are worth over $3.2 billion. These are essentially trusts only accessible by the Prince of Wales and the Sovereign respectively, and even then they are entitled only to the benefits. For example, the Prince of Wales title controls her over $2 billion Duchy of Cornwall, which was bought for just under $40 million as of last year.

It’s a nice change, but these trusts are governed by strict rules, so you can only enjoy the income and not touch the principal.

Buckingham Palace and Clarence House now publish annual detailed reports outlining how they spend this money, but when it comes to the royal family’s third source of income, the private fortune, things take a turn for the worse. is really confusing.

their private property

up to date Sunday Times rich list Queen’s personal property At $640m (£370m), no one knows where it came from.

Over the years, we’ve gotten a glimpse inside various HRH bank accounts, but only more questions that the Windsors never answered.

Take the Queen Mother, for example. When she died in 2002, she left up to $52 million for her then six great-grandchildren. Queen’s true worth(Prince Edward and Sophie, children of the Countess of Wessex, and Lady Louise Windsor and James, Viscount Severn, had not yet been born.)

How did the Queen Mother, who hails from a middle-class landlord family in Scotland, go down in flames and acquire such a staggering fortune?

So does Prince Philip. Last year, Sun He claimed his will was worth $51.9 million (£30 million). His own parents, who lived in France and Greece, could hardly rub together, and his father, Prince Andrew, of Greece and Denmark, died in Monte Carlo almost penniless.

Again, how could a man with no known outside sources of income earn so much?

Where does Prince Charles’ money come from?

Now consider Charles. His financial consultant, Jeffrey Bignell, said: Telegraph Princess Diana had[taken] He “took every penny he had” in his 1996 divorce.

To fund the Princess’ $29.4m (£17m) settlement, Vignell says he was “told to liquidate everything”. [Charles’] We made the investment so he could give her the cash…at the time he had no personal assets left, so I stopped being his personal financial advisor. rice field. “

However, by 2001, just five years later, Charles was estimated to have nearly $7 million (£4 million) excluding the Duchy’s funds. Where did the initial cash reserves to rebuild his fortune come from? [the Prince] Because, like the private ownership of the Queen’s stock, it’s shrouded in a pea soup-like fog of inexplicability. “

Another example. Where did the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Prince Charles spent on his son Prince Harry’s lavish wedding reception go? suit Where is actress Meghan Markle from in 2018?

When it comes to the royal family and their financial resources, the only questions we really have are: For example, how did two adults with no apparent source of outside income find over $30 million to purchase property in Switzerland?

How is it possible that the Queen is reportedly allowed to deduct the money she gives her children from the income of the Duchy of Lancaster as an expense?

Over the years, other clues about the royal wealth have trickled out. In 2017, Guardian The Principality of Lancaster released the Paradise Papers, which embarrassed Buckingham Palace after it was revealed that it had invested money in a notorious tax haven in the Cayman Islands.

The will of the royal family is shrouded in secrecy

Uncertainty over royal finances extends to wills. In Britain, all wills are open to the public, except those of the royal family. The reason can be traced back to 1911, when Prince George, brother of his fifth wife Queen Mary, Prince Francis, left jewelry to her mistress, the Countess of Kilmorey. Mary intervenes to silence her scandalous bequest and successfully gets a judge to seal her will. This continues to this day.

According to former MP and Privy Councilor Norman Baker, the royal will is now kept in a safe in an iron cage in a building off the Strand in central London.

of Guardian The newspaper has attempted to highlight the issue, and has filed a lawsuit against a judge’s decision to bar the media from a court hearing that determined Philip’s will to be kept secret. A valiant effort failed.)

I could go on and on and on because there are endless examples of the opacity surrounding royal wealth, which is quite simply not good enough.

The Queen is the head of state and members of the royal family such as Charles, William, Kate, Edward and Anne all represent her in official capacity. Why should their financial disclosure requirements be different than those that apply to, say, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom?

And why is it acceptable that she does not face the same laws as her subjects? Unlike all British citizens, the Queen “has no obligation to provide information to tax inspectors or official statisticians.” Guardian Report from July.

Similarly, Her Majesty does not have to pay “various minor taxes levied on other British citizens” in Scotland, the same report disclosing, similarly “paying no duty on land purchases and landfills”. Nor have they paid a fee to carry out the disposition and are partially exempt from air travel duties.”

For decades, citizens may have flexibly swallowed the line that the royal family is above all of us, so the same rules don’t apply, but that era was the time for the royal family’s vast ivory collections. (Yes, there are 1,200 ivory squirrel pieces stored somewhere, including pianos, bookshelves, tables, chairs, and sculptures.)

We are now living in a time when the millions of people ruled by the Queen demand higher levels of accountability and transparency from their leaders, and it inevitably extends to the Queen and her family. range.

They both claimed to be public figures enjoying more than $150 million out of government purses and private individuals when they wanted to keep the true extent of their cash reserves a secret. You cannot have a method.

Why The Queen Pays Taxes On Her Earnings

In the past, Her Majesty has proven attuned to the way the winds of community sentiment are blowing when it comes to money. A proposal to renovate a large property that was occupied by only one family and was never open to the public was met with outcry. In the ensuing media brawl, the Queen, for the first time in history, agreed to pay taxes on her earnings.

In other words, they demonstrate considerable survival instincts. Maybe the 96-year-old still needs it to prevent his PR disaster looming here.

In the years to come, it is entirely possible that the special treatment Her Majesty and her unruly brood enjoy will spark the resentment and outrage of the wider community.

Prince Charles’ accession to the throne will only bring new focus to these sorts of issues, and the palace would do better to have answers ready soon. Times The story that he received a $1.7 million charitable donation from Osama bin Laden’s brother, and on another occasion a similar sum in a plastic bag from a Qatari politician, also applies to his Prince’s Trust. not. )

Clearly, the royal family doesn’t want the world to know how rich they are. If you find yourself with a huge investment and enough cash to bail out the Bank of England, it is much more difficult to claim that you are working loyally and selflessly for your country.

But a secretive company dodging and evading the Freedom of Information Act and hiding cash in tax havens doesn’t match the modern, good-natured, friendly version of the royal family that William and Kate are furiously trying to promote. . .

The game of royals comes down to one thing: survival. In the years to come, as painful as it may be for the royal family, it could require a radical rethink when it comes to the near-total secrecy surrounding finances. .

If I do not? Ultimately, you may end up paying a much higher price.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with over 15 years of experience working on major Australian media titles.