The royal family – 24 people earned nearly $65 million last year alone, including rent received from the army, NHS and schools, a media investigation has found

King Charles III and his son Prince William have contracts with UK taxpayer-funded public services, charities, government departments and even a prison, which help them earn millions every year. That’s in addition to the so-called sovereign grant the royals get from the tax-funded Westminster regime. 

In 2023 alone, Charles and William’s private fiefdoms, the Duchy of Lancaster and the Duchy of Cornwall – raised £27.4 million (over $35 million) and £23.6 million ($30 million) respectively for the British royal family.

The royals used the royal addresses to uncover their business contracts and discovered how the duchies were making money ’via a series of commercial rents and feudal levies on land largely seized by medieval monarchs.’

Dubbed ’Duchy Files,’ the investigation claims to have found that King Charles and Prince William charged for the right to cross rivers, offload cargo onto the shore, run cables under their beaches, operate schools and charities, and even dig graves. 

‘They earn revenue from toll bridges, ferries, sewage pipes, churches, village halls, pubs, distilleries, gas pipelines, boat moorings, opencast and underground mines, car parks, rental homes and wind turbines,’ The Times claims.

Some 5,410 landholdings and properties are held by the royal duchies, the investigation claims.

For instance, a deal with an NHS foundation trust will reportedly pay the King’s Duchy of Lancaster £11 million ($14 million) over 15 years to rent a warehouse for ambulances.

Prince William’s Duchy of Cornwall receives £1.5 million ($1.9 million) a year from the Ministry of Justice for using Dartmoor Prison.

The duchy of the King’s eldest son, the Colonel-in-Chief of the Army Air Corps, also charges the military ’for the right to train’ on its 67,500 acres of land in Dartmoor. The sum it gets has not been revealed. 

According to the report, the estates also rent out over 900 residential homes and farms to tenants.

The duchies, established in the 14th century, are operating as commercial landlords, but are exempt from paying tax on their corporate profits.

The King and Prince pay income tax voluntarily at the highest rate, 45%. In 2022, the last time King Charles published his tax filings, he paid 25% of the £23 million ($30 million) in duchy profit because he deducted expenses, he considered related to his official duties.

The Duchy Files investigation marks the first time that the complete list of property holdings for the two royal estates has been made public. Even the British parliament was denied access to it.

The two duchies are separate from The ancient property empires that fund the King and the Prince of Wales have remained a closely guarded secret within the royal family and its small circle of advisers for centuries.

The Crown Estate, a vast property business owned by the British monarch but run independently. Because of its soaring profits, the taxpayer-funded sovereign grant that pays for official royal duties will rise from £86.3 million ($111 million) in 2024-25 to £132 million ($170 million) in 2025-26. PLEASE SHARE OUR STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA

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