Where do the Queen and royal family get their money from?
How is the family funded and how will Prince Andrew fund his settlement with Virginia Giuffre?
The Duke of York is said to be funding his legal settlement with Virginia Giuffre using money from the Queen alongside proceeds from the sale of his luxury ski chalet.
The Queen reportedly stepped in to part-fund the deal in an attempt to move past the sex abuse scandal that has plagued her second son and threatened to overshadow her Platinum Jubilee year.
As Prince Andrew faces calls to be transparent about how the agreement has been funded, attention turns to the finances of the royal family.
What money does the duke have?
Andrew is in the “final stages” of selling the £18 million chalet in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier that he bought in 2014 with his ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, according to sources.
The couple bought the property from the French socialite Isabelle de Rouvre and were involved in a long-running legal dispute over a final £6.6 million payment. The issue was finally resolved in November allowing a sale to go ahead, with a buyer found at the start of the year.
The duke has long relied on the Queen to pay for his lavish lifestyle, receiving a reported £250,000 annual allowance from the Duchy of Lancaster estate.
His other income includes a £20,000-a-year Royal Navy pension, alongside personal investments and bequests from other family members.
Despite courting friendships with a coterie of multimillionaires, including the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew himself has never been independently wealthy. A glimpse into his opaque finances emerged last year in leaked documents revealing that his friend, the Tory donor David Rowland, helped him pay off a £1.5 million loan.
What is the Duchy of Lancaster estate?
The Queen will draw money from the privy purse and her private Duchy of Lancaster estate to help Andrew with his settlement fees, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The estate is a £577 million collection of land, property and investments that provides the Queen with much of the private income she uses to fund minor royals and to meet expenses.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also benefited from the estate, which has served every reigning monarch since 1399, having received running costs before they moved to the United States in 2020.
• Prince Andrew’s payout to Virginia Giuffre ‘is worth its weight in gold’ for Queen
The duchy, which uses the motto “preserving the past, investing the future”, has proved an increasingly fruitful source of money to the Queen over the past 20 years. Having posted a yearly surplus of £5.8 million in 2000, its most recent accounts show a surplus of £22.3 million for the year ending March 31, 2021.
David McClure, an expert on the income of the House of Windsor, describes the duchy as the Queen’s cash cow. Last year he said: “Were there a need to solve the problem and meet legal bills, there is not a shortage of cash.”
Norman Baker, a former Liberal Democrat MP who has written about royal finances, said: “Andrew hasn’t got that much money himself and we have to make sure none of this has come from the public purse.”
While revealing little about how the Queen uses the reserves, the accounts note that the duchy has ample recourse to additional liquidity if needed and “will deploy appropriate measures as required”.
Although not subject to tax, the Queen has voluntarily paid tax on any income she receives from it since 1993.
The duchy owns rural estates spanning 18,481 hectares of land in England and Wales that were acquired over seven centuries, through marriage, inheritance, gifts and confiscation. Although rural property makes up the majority of the portfolio, its most valuable assets are a collection of retail and commercial properties in urban locations such as central London.
The portfolio further includes 36,000 hectares of agricultural and commercial land, as well as several limestone and sandstone quarries and a gypsum mine that supply the construction industry. Several 18-hole golf courses, a roadside service area off the M6 motorway and 16 luxury cottages are also part of the portfolio.
Andrew defended the Queen in 2017 when it emerged that the private estate invested £5.7 million in a fund in the Cayman Islands.
The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is responsible for the administration of the duchy. Steve Barclay — Boris Johnson’s chief of staff — is the present holder of the role.
How else does the Queen make money?
The Queen also derives personal income from an investment portfolio and private estates, though little is known about the extent of this wealth.
Every year she is given a single payment called the Sovereign Grant from the government to cover official royal duties and the upkeep of properties such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Last year the grant was £85.9 million, equivalent to £1.29 per person in the UK, with official expenditure slightly overrunning at £87.5 million.
Royal accounts show that £24.1 million was spent on wages last year and £49.5 million on property maintenance, including £31.6 million on Buckingham Palace. Travel costs stood at £3.2 million.
