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With the coronation of King Charles, the world collectively witnessed a moment that will be recorded in years to come all in real-time. The British monarchy is approximately 1200 years old, and King Charles is the 40th monarch to be crowned King of Britain. His reign is marked as a “new era of hope and progress, our new Carolean age,” declared Former Prime Minister Liz Truss. Although the heydays of the monarchy are long over, the establishment holds a substantial amount of wealth accumulated over the years from the ruling. Most of the traditions of the coronation have been passed down for years and essentially are created as a projection of the wealth and hence the power of the monarchy. The St. Edward’s Crown that was placed on King Charles on the coronation day is itself made of five pounds of solid gold and ornated with 444 precious and semi-precious stones that are worth approximately Dhs14.68 billion. Apart from these, King Charles also has assets inherited from the family, official gifts and earnings as a working royal. But we have only scratched the surface, read more to find out what King Charles net worth is.
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According to extensive research by The Guardian, King Charles has amassed two billion USD from assets including land, property, luxury vehicles, art collections including original pieces from Monet and Dalí, jewellery, and more. Most of King Charles’ publicised assets are owned by the sovereign in the right of the crown making it tricky to segregate what is privately owned and what is not. For example, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace are owned by the state however, King Charles has inherited two rural estates, the Balmoral and Sandringham. Balmoral is valued at 80 million pounds including acres of land surrounding the estate, energy generated from the land and more. Even more valued is the Sandringham estate at 250 million pounds after the relentless efforts of the late Prince Philip to renovate it. The Duchy of Lancaster is a private estate managed as a profitable enterprise and held in trust by the monarch. It generates a significant annual income of approximately 20 million pounds for whoever is occupying the throne. Additionally, the Windsor family also have complete immunity from inheritance tax because of the late Queen’s highly preferential agreement signed in 1993 by then Prime Minister, John Major.
The Windsors also have fleets of luxury vehicles including Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, and Bentleys including the 1977 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI which is worth 1.3 million pounds itself.
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King Charles has inherited 70 thoroughbreds estimated at 27 million pounds from his late mother who was very passionate about breeding horses and has immensely invested in it throughout her life. Including the rare stamps collected by the late King George V, the royal philatelic collection is considered one of the best stamp collections in the world and is at least worth 100 million pounds according to the consensus of the experts from the Guardian although it is not available to the public.
Moving on to the royal art collections, artworks by Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, Claude Monet and more have been gifted and purchased by members of the royal family throughout the years especially since both Prince Philip and the queen’s mother were avid art collectors. It is not feasible to estimate the exact value, but the value of the 60 prominent works from the 400 that have been previously exhibited is estimated to be 24 million pounds. However, the value could likely be much higher than deducted by the experts.
It is no secret that the Windsors have an extensive private collection of precious jewellery and gems amassed from all those years of colonising countries like India, Kenya, and Sudan to name a few. In 1989, Laurence Krashes valued several famous items for a book by Andrew Morton, who predicted they would increase in value tenfold if sold. A later auction of Princess Margaret’s jewellery showed this was too conservative, with items selling for an average of 18 times their highest estimated value. To be cautious, a more moderate premium of ten times the intrinsic value was adopted, resulting in 54 jewels being valued at 533 million pounds.
A significant portion of the king’s private wealth comes from official state gifts that have become part of his family’s personal property and vast hereditary estates that generate annual payments of millions. The royal family’s public roles as working royals also greatly contribute to their wealth. We should also take into account the highly confidential investments, making it impossible to determine the exact value of their assets. Although the exact extent of the king’s wealth is difficult to ascertain due to the monarchy’s secrecy, it is clear that King Charles net worth is in the billions.
