Queen Elizabeth II, who died this Thursday, September 8, 2022 at the age of 96, accumulated a personal fortune calculated in about 370 million pounds (425 million dollars, 427 million euros, more than 1.8 billion pesos), according to an estimate of Sunday Times.
(See: Queen Elizabeth II died: Royal family confirmed the death).
The British monarch enjoyed a royal lifestyle at the taxpayer’s expense, but she and her family also received significant income from his private businesses, the details of which are not known.
An annual grant from the British Government called ‘Sovereign Grant’se was in charge of covering the official expenses of the Queen and other members of the Royal House who represent her.
During the financial year 2020-2021, the endowment amounted to 86 million pounds (more than 435 billion pesos), of which 34.4 million were used for ongoing restorations and maintenance of Buckingham Palace, in London.
The ‘Sovereign Grant’ is equal to 15% of the profits obtained by the ‘Crown Estate’, a huge financial portfolio that includes land, real estate and other types of assets, such as wind farms, which belonged to the monarch, but are managed independently.
The net income of the ‘Crown Estate’ is given to the British Treasury, according to an agreement sealed in 1760.
(See: Elizabeth II: what are London Bridge and Unicorn, the plans after her death).
In the last financial year, the ‘Sovereign Grant’ was provisionally increased to cover major renovation work in Buckingham. And it was also used to pay the hundreds of employees that the royal house has.
Queen Elizabeth II, along with Duke Philip of Edinburgh, her husband.
AFP
‘Privy Purse’ is what is called the private income of Queen Elizabeth II, which comes, above all, from the estate of the Duchy of Lancaster, property of the royal house since the Middle Ages. Its assets are made up of land, financial investments and property for an amount of more than 500 million pounds (more than 2.5 billion pesos).
The ‘Privy Estate’ is made up of 315 residences, as well as commercial premises in the heart of London and thousands of hectares of agricultural land. His net income in the 2020-2021 financial year was more than 20 million pounds (more than 101 million pesos).
The Queen gave part of this amount to her family and paid taxes on the money not used for official tasks.
(See: Elizabeth II, a symbol of stability in times of crisis).
“The queen uses this money to pay her personal expenses to maintain the residences of Balmoral and Sandringham, something very expensive“said David McClure, author of a book on the queen’s finances called ‘The Queen’s true worth’.
Both residences are private properties of Elizabeth II.
“He also uses part of that money to subsidize other members of the royal family who do not receive public or ‘Sovereign Grant’ money.McClure added to the agency. AFP.
Recipients of these grants include her daughter, Princess Anne; his youngest child, Prince Edward; and his wife Sophia, Countess of Wessex; also his middle son; Prince Andrew.
(See: Charles III, the British monarch: from activist prince to elderly king).
Andrés no longer performs real tasks and therefore will not receive as generous an allowance as in the past.
And it is that Prince Andrew fell out of favor because of his relationship with the late American financier Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sexually exploiting minors before committing suicide in prison.
Although most of the royal palaces belong to the ‘Crown Estate’, the Queen owned two private residences: balmoral castle, in the northeast of Scotland, whose estimated value is 100 million pounds sterling (more than 506 billion pesos), and the sandringham estate, valued at about 50 million (more than 253 billion pesos).
These properties are not maintained with public funds.
The queen also had some objects from the Royal Collection in a personal capacity, which includes a philatelic collection that belonged to his grandfather, King George V, valued at 100 million pounds sterling (more than 506 billion pesos).
(See: How long was Elizabeth II on the throne and what were her functions).
The monarch’s great passion for racehorses also earned her more than 7 million pounds (more than 35 billion pesos) in prize money, according to calculations by myracing.com, although this excludes the costly maintenance of equines.
The Crown jewels, valued at around 3,000 million pounds (more than 15 billion pesos), belong to the queen in a symbolic way, but they are automatically transferred to whoever succeeds her.
Elizabeth II was passionate about racehorses and won more than 7 million pounds (more than 35 billion pesos) in prizes with them.
EFE
The Queen was involved in the ‘Paradise Papers’, secret documents that were leaked in 2017 about the interests of the rich and powerful outside their countries.
This material was released by the United States-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The documents revealed that Elizabeth II, through the Duchy of Lancaster, deposited 10 million pounds (more than 50 billion pesos) in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, British Overseas Territories that are considered tax havens.
The Crown jewels are valued at around 3,000 million pounds (more than 15 billion pesos).
EFE
With a fortune estimated at 370 million pounds (more than 1.8 billion pesos), did not make the list of the 250 richest people in the UK made by The Sunday Times in 2021, headed by billionaire businessman Leonard Blavatnik, with a net worth of about 23,000 million pounds.
His fortune is completely dwarfed by those of other monarchies: the fortune of the Thai royal family is estimated at between 50,000 and 70,000 million dollars, while the wealth of Saudi King Salman reaches about 18,000 million dollars.
AFP
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