Cost of the crown: what we know so far about British royals’ wealth and finances

Read a summary of our findings about the personal enrichment of the royal family and origins of some of their wealth

The Guardian’s Cost of the crown series is an investigation into the finances and private wealth of the British royal family – and the vast apparatus of secrecy that obscures these from the public.

Buckingham Palace argues that the financial arrangements of royals should “remain private, as they would for any other individual”. But in the lead-up to the coronation of King Charles III, we believe more scrutiny is warranted.

Elizabeth II and Charles III have extracted cash payments worth more than £1.2bn from two hereditary estates that pay no tax, in addition to the millions they receive in public funding for their official duties. In 2022, they received £21m each from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall respectively, despite a centuries-old debate over whether the two estates in fact belong to the British nation.

The monarch, who receives about £86m a year in public money, is technically in line for an extra £250m a year in taxpayer money, according to the terms of a funding settlement introduced by David Cameron as prime minister in 2011. The king has signalled he does not want the extra money, but the arrangement underscores the extraordinary generosity of Cameron’s radical shake-up of royal funding.

King Charles has for the first time signalled his support for a review of themonarchy’s historical links to slavery, after the Guardian uncovered a previously unseen document showing the transfer of £1,000 of shares in the slave-trading Royal African Company to William III.

The history of Kensington Palace, the home of a succession of monarchs and more recently the Prince and Princess of Wales, is uncomfortably entwined with the monarchy’s involvement in slavery. Across almost three centuries, 12 British monarchs sponsored, supported or profited from Britain’s involvement in slavery, our research shows.

India Office files detail how priceless treasures looted from India ended up in the royal collection. They include a legendary ruby, and a gold girdle inlaid with 19 emeralds that appeared in a birthday exhibition celebrating the then Prince Charles’s favourite works.

The king and late queen made nearly £2m from the sale of horses given to them by prominent figures, including a Dubai sheikh and the Aga Khan. They were among horses received by the queen that we estimate to now be worth about £27m.