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Since he ascended to the throne, royal well-wishers have wondered about King Charles’ net worth and what he inherited after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
King Charles III, whose full name is Charles Philip Arthur George, is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip and the older brother of Anne, Princess Royal; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. He is also the father of Prince William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, whom he shared with his late wife Diana, Princess of Wales. Charles and Diana were married from 1981 to 1996. In 2005, Charles remarried with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles became the new King of the United Kingdom and the 14 Commonwealth realms after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022. At the time he became king, Charles was the longest-serving heir apparent in British royal family history and the oldest monarch to assume the British throne at the age of 73 years old. “The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” Charles said in a statement in September 2022 after the death of his mother. “We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign, and much-loved mother. I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world. During this period of mourning and change, my family and I will be comforted and sustained by our knowledge of the respect and deep affection on which The Queen was so widely held.”
In a speech at Buckingham Palace days after he became king, Charles spoke about his “duty to protect the diversity of our country, including by protecting the space for Faith itself and its practise through the religions, cultures, traditions and beliefs to which our hearts and minds direct us.” He continued, “My Christian beliefs have love at their very heart. By my most profound convictions therefore, as well as by my position as sovereign, I hold myself bound to respect those who follow other spiritual paths, as well as those who seek to live their lives according to secular ideals.”
So what is King Charles’ net worth and how much did he inherit from Queen Elizabeth? Read on for what we know about King Charles’ net worth and how he makes his money.
How does King Charles make money?
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How does King Charles III make money? Before he became the King of the United Kingdom, Charles and his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles (now Camilla, Queen Consort) received 90 percent of their income from a private estate called the Duchy of Cornwall, which was established in 1337 to financially support the heir to the throne, according to CNN. The Duchy of Cornwall is funded through the ownership and operation of land in rural and urban areas, as well as islands and rental cottages in Wales, Cornwall and other areas in the United Kingdom. In 2018, the Duchy of Cornwall made Charles and Camilla $28 million.
Charles and Camilla also received $1.8 million that year from the Sovereign Grant, a taxpayer fund paid each year to the British royal family, as well as another $627,000 from various United Kingdom departments. The Sovereign Grant originated from an agreement made by King George III in 1760, who agreed to surrender his income from Parliament to receive a set annual payment for himself and future generations of the British royal family. The agreement was originally known as the Civil List before it was reworked as the Sovereign Grant in 2012. Under the agreement, the British royal family receives a grant in exchange for surrendering their profits from the Crown Estate, the family’s collection of lands and holdings worth £14.1 billion, to the government, according to BBC. Each year, the reigning monarch receives 25 percent of the Crown Estate’s profits. The amount pays for property upkeep and utilities, the British royal family’s travel and the royal employee payroll. The grant doesn’t cover security and royal ceremonies, which are funded by other areas. According to CNN, about 50 percent of Charles and Camilla’s annual income was spent on travel and official royal engagements, while a quarter went to taxes. The remaining $8.9 million went to Charles’ children with his late wife Princess Diana—Prince William and Prince Harry—as well as non-official purchases and a royal savings account.
Charles and Camilla are also senior members of The Firm, also known as the Monarchy PLC, according to Fortune, which is made up of the public faces of the House of the Windsor and the royal family members the Queen Elizabeth II—now King Charles—was the head of. The firm operates and a multi-million-pound business empire that boosts the United Kingdom economy through televised events and tourism, according to Fortune. Before her death, The Queen was the head of The Firm. The other seven members were: Charles; Camilla; Prince William; his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge; Princess Anne; Prince Edward; and his wife Sophie, Countess of Essex. According to Forbes, the British royal family holds almost $28 billion in real estate as of 2021 that cannot be sold. Here’s how that amount breaks down:
- The Crown Estate: $19.5 billion
- Buckingham Palace: $4.9 billion
- The Duchy of Cornwall: $1.3 billion
- The Duchy of Lancaster: $748 million
- Kensington Palace: $630 million
- The Crown Estate of Scotland: $592 million
How much did King Charles inherit from Queen Elizabeth?
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How much did King Charles III inherit from Queen Elizabeth II? Charles became the new King of the United Kingdom after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on September 8, 2022. Charles was the eldest child of the Queen and her husband, Prince Philip, who died on April 9, 2021. “The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” Buckingham Palace announced in a statement at the time of the Queen’s death. “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
According to Forbes, Charles inherited the Queen’s $500 million in personal assets after her death. Those assets include her personal investments, art collection, jewelry, rare stamps and real estate holdings, which include Sandringham House in Norfolk, England, and the Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where the Queen died. Charles also inherited the Queen’s $70 million in assets from the Queen Mother, which included a stamp collection, fine china, jewels, horses, and even a valuable Faberge egg collection and paintings from artists like Monet, Nash and Carl Fabergé. Charles also didn’t have to pay an inheritance tax on his inheritance from the Queen due to an a 1993 agreement between the British royal family and former Prime Minister John Major. Under the agreement, inheritances from sovereign to sovereign is exempt from the United Kingdom’s 40-percent inheritance tax. The agreement was created to avoid the erosion of the British royal family’s wealth.
What is King Charles’ net worth?
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What is King Charles III’s net worth? King Charles’s net worth is $600 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The site reports that Charles’ net worth increased from $100 million when he was the Prince of Wales to $600 million after he ascended the throne as king. Along with the work he did for The Firm, Charles also had several business ventures, including the Charitable Foundation (which his eldest son, Prince William, inherited after he became king). Through the Charitable Foundation, Charles owned the largest organic food brand in the United Kingdom, as well as a nature retreat and crafts center in Transylvania that operated as bed and breakfasts, according to Forbes. Along with his work as a senior member of the British royal family, Charles also Royal Navy and attended the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell, where he trained as a jet pilot. He served on HMS Norfolk, HMS Minerva and the HMS Jupiter.
In a 2013 interview with Time, nine years before he became king, Charles spoke about his “duty” to serve the United Kingdom. “I’ve had this extraordinary feeling, for years and years, ever since I can remember really, of wanting to heal and make things better,” he said at the time. “I feel more than anything else it’s my duty to worry about everybody and their lives in this country, to try to find a way of improving things if I possibly can.” Charles also confirmed to Time in 2013 that he had no plans to bypass the role of king when the time came for him to take the throne. “If you chuck away too many things, you end up discovering there was value in them,” he said at the time. In a 2018 BBC documentary celebrating his 70th birthday, Charles also revealed that he planned to keep the British royal family non-political when he takes the throne. “There’s only room for one sovereign at the time, not two,” he said at the time. “Clearly … I won’t be able to do the same things I’ve done, you know, as heir, so of course you operate within the … the constitutional parameters,” he shared at the time.
In his first speech as the King of the United Kingdom in September 2022, Charles pledged to “uphold the constitutional principles at the heart” of the United Kingdom. “I … solemnly pledge myself throughout the remaining time God grants me to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation,” he said at the time. “And wherever you may live in the United Kingdom or in the realms and territories across the world and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect, and love as I have throughout my life.” He continued, “My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others.”
Image: Courtesy of Random House.
For more about the British royal family, check out Sally Bedell Smith’s 2012 biography, Elizabeth the Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch
. The New York Times bestseller, which includes the “real story” behind several storylines featured in Netflix’s The Crown, follows Queen Elizabeth II’s life from her childhood as the “heiress presumptive” to her father, King George VI; to the moment he et her husband, Prince Philip, when she was 13 years old; to her ascension to the throne at 25 years old in 1952. Elizabeth the Queen, which also includes interviews with Buckingham Palace sources and never-before-revealed documents, provides a deep dive into the Queen’s legacy as one of the most famous monarchs in recent history.
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