How much rent should a royal pay?

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When a public spending watchdog in the U.K. Revealed some of the intricacies of royal residences and rents the other day, much attention focused on arrangements for the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

The report from the National Audit Office — which comes in the wake of controversy last year over Andrew’s lease of a mansion on the Crown Estate — revealed he had been receiving rental income as he sublet three cottages. It also showed that King Charles has been paying the rent — set at less than market value — for his nieces Beatrice and Eugenie, who have accommodations in royal properties in central London. 

There are no suggestions of illegality here, but for the House of Windsor, the attention on such financial matters draws further focus on public perception and the challenge the monarchy has in showing modern-day relevancy and relatability. 

"The perception of elitism and favouritism and this sort of financial monopoly has been and can continue to be very damaging to the royal image if not handled correctly," royal historian Justin Vovk said in an interview.

"When people in Britain and Canada are struggling to make ends meet, keep their homes, dealing with through-the-roof rents and mortgages, to see a wealthy and influential family that is not paying 100 per cent of market value — whether there's justification for that or not in a constitutional way — that doesn't matter to the average person. That is just really bad optics."

According to the report from the National Audit Office, Andrew was subletting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate, near Windsor Castle.

How much income he received from that was not disclosed, but the idea that he might have benefited financially from his lease drew scrutiny.

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"If he was able to … rent out properties on the estate for substantial amounts of money, then that's an income stream and that might in the course of 20 years or so generate quite a substantial income," Craig Prescott, a constitutional expert and lecturer in law at Royal Holloway, University of London, said in an interview.

"So that perhaps puts the lease in a different light."

Much media attention after the report’s release focused on the fact that Charles is paying the rent — somewhere around 60 per cent of market value — for accommodations Beatrice has in St. James’s Palace and Eugenie has in a property on the grounds of Kensington Palace.

"They never conducted public duties as such, and so there's a big question, which is why should someone be able to live in a palace rent-free," said Prescott.

"But if the King wants to pay their rent, then the King can pay their rent, ultimately. There's no law against that."

The National Audit Office report also lays out details for the accommodation of Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.

Last year, they moved into the eight-bedroom Forest Lodge — which they have suggested is their "forever home" — under a 20-year lease that calls for annual rent of around 300,000 pounds (about $560,000 Cdn), which will be reviewed every five years at market rate.

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Prince William is "paying more than the previous tenant did, substantially more. I think it's 100,000 pounds [about $186,000 Cdn] a year more," Prescott said. 

"So on the face of it, that strikes you as a relatively straightforward value-for-money proposition."

Presumably, however, that rent will be paid out of resources from William’s Duchy of Cornwall.

"So it raises questions about that," said Prescott. 

"But then in Prince William’s defence, he is looking at refashioning the Duchy of Cornwall to sell [20 per cent of its property] and use that money to construct affordable housing, so there's a nicer circle with all of that than had been the case, say, with Royal Lodge."

Determining how much rent a royal should pay is a fraught prospect.

"That's one of those tricky questions because trying to quantify how much work could equal a certain amount of rent, what work does qualify, what work doesn't, what members of the family meet these thresholds — it enters an area of subjective evaluation that is really, really hard to try and put down on paper," said Vovk.

Money management and relatability have been issues for any monarchy for centuries, Vovk suggested.

For the House of Windsor now, he sees the Prince and Princess of Wales as key to relating to people. 

"I think the fact that Catherine and William … have by and large not been extravagant, the fact that they have really emphasized this much more hands-on approach to parenting, the fact that their kids are doing chores at home … those sorts of things are really critical to mitigating perceptions of unnecessary extravagance [and] unrelatability."

Prescott thinks some of the heat that had surrounded the controversy particularly over Andrew’s lease of Royal Lodge was turned down by his move to accommodations on King Charles’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, northeast of London.

But Prescott sees other issues remaining.

"I do think that there's a genuine question about what does a slimmed-down Royal Family need property-wise?"

A lot of this stems from the reign of Charles’s mother, Elizabeth, when her cousins were doing public engagements and some of them had leased accommodations as a sort of quid pro quo for doing royal duties, Prescott said.

There was "much more deference and acceptability for these types of arrangements," he said, "whereas now, there's much more focus on value for money."

"And so I think you're going to see far fewer members of the Royal Family getting advantageous leases."

Buckingham Palace saw several visitors from Canada in the last little while.

One day after several First Nations leaders met with King Charles at the palace, he also welcomed incoming Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour.

The leader of the Assembly of First Nations, Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, met with Charles for the second time in two years to discuss the Crown's nation-to-nation treaty relationship with Indigenous peoples in Canada. 

Woodhouse Nepinak said the discussions with Charles centred around First Nations sovereignty, including in resource development as the federal government forges ahead with its major projects office amid ongoing U.S. Tariff threats. 

"Our delegation of course emphasizes that water and major projects legislation must be co-developed with First Nations consistent with stewardship responsibilities, inherent rights, as well as free, prior and informed consent," Woodhouse Nepinak said.

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With that recent meeting and others, Vovk said we’re seeing "greater dialogue between the Crown and Canada's Indigenous leaders" possibly than has ever been seen before.  

"There is a lot of positivity coming from Canada's Indigenous leaders about their current relationship with the current sovereign, which is really important for … continuing public support for Indigenous reconciliation and Indigenous rights, particularly in light of the issues with Alberta separatism."

Arbour’s meeting with Charles ahead of her installation was a regular occurrence for any incoming governor general.

"All governors general across the Commonwealth realms, and including lieutenant governors … as a representative of the King, they all get the invite to come to Buckingham Palace and meet the monarch," David Johnson, a political science professor emeritus at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, said in an interview.

"These are very memorable times for all of these vice regents."

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As Mary Simon’s time as Canada’s first Indigenous governor general came to an end, she received a gift that was designed from her own memories of a cherished childhood place.

The gift — a handcrafted, 100 per cent Canadian wool rug — will remain at Rideau Hall in perpetuity and was the result of a project that brought together Canadian artisans, designers and manufacturers through the guidance and leadership of the Campaign for Wool in Canada.

"Rideau Hall is Canada's house, it's the house of the monarch, it's the house of the Governor General," Matthew Rowe, chair of the Campaign for Wool in Canada and Canadian Wool Council, said in an interview. 

"And so it should reflect ... The best of what this country has to offer and celebrate what we produce, what we're able to manufacture, celebrate the landscape and our people. 

"And so to me, having this rug now in Rideau Hall … it’s inspiring because it shows just what's possible."

The rug was designed by Simon, working with the National Capital Commission’s interior designer. It is based on a location — and a painting of that location — in northern Quebec that was a "favoured childhood location" and the birthplace of Simon’s grandmother, Rowe said.

Experts at Toronto-based rug design firm Creative Matters translated that into a rug, and once the design was completed, the final product was tufted by hand by Cabernet Carpets in Waterloo, Ont.

A $25,000 donation from Dr. Michael Dan, a Toronto philanthropist and former neurosurgeon who has been honoured for his partnerships with Indigenous people, covered the full cost of the project.

Rowe said Simon was delighted by the rug, which was presented to her on May 29.

"In terms of her reaction in the room, the connection with her family … this was something that she was very proud to have been involved in."

The Campaign for Wool has extended a similar offer to Arbour, and to Prime Minister Mark Carney, to design their own custom Canadian wool rug that would be donated to Canada’s Crown Collection.

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The Campaign for Wool is King Charles’s global endeavour to promote wool and all that can be done with the natural, long-lasting and biodegradable material and its role in supporting a sustainable world, something that has been a longstanding interest of Charles. The Campaign for Wool is active in 13 countries. 

Princess Anne cast her memory back to Canada 50 years ago when she met with other members of Britain’s Olympic team who competed in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

The reunion at a club in London this week brought together former athletes who took part in the Summer and Winter Games that year.

Anne is the first member of the Royal Family to compete in an Olympic Games. She took part in the three-day equestrian event, riding her mother Queen Elizabeth’s horse, Goodwill.

Anne’s daughter, Zara, took part in the same three-day equestrian event when London hosted the Olympics in 2012.

"In Ukraine, we have seen how agility, precision and integration with advanced technologies have redefined the battlefield. We must continue to learn from those who have fought and adapted under the most demanding conditions, including from our Ukrainian partners with whom we can share knowledge, innovate and improve together."

— King Charles, in a speech marking the formation of a new regiment of the British army, the King’s Gurkha Artillery.

Charles met again this week with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy, who has been in the U.K. Several times since the Russian invasion of his country in 2022.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were greeted by cheers from well-wishers as they arrived at the wedding of the son of his sister, Princess Anne. Peter Phillips married nurse Harriet Sperling during a private ceremony in a village in western England. [BBC]

Twenty-one police officers have been placed on restricted duties following claims officers responsible for protecting the Royal Family at Windsor Castle fell asleep and left their posts unattended. [BBC]

Pamela Hicks, who has died aged 97, was the great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria and her oldest surviving descendant. As a child, Hicks was sufficiently aristocratic to be a playmate of Princess Elizabeth, the future Queen Elizabeth II, and her sister, Princess Margaret, and she was close enough to the Royal Family to serve for a time as lady-in-waiting to the young Queen. [The Guardian]

Buckingham Palace was handed emails six years ago that would have shown that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was sharing confidential government information while a trade envoy, according to court documents. [BBC]

Senior Writer

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