For months, Maeve McClenaghan and her colleagues in the Guardian investigations team have been crisscrossing the country in a quest to uncover as much as possible about the true extent of the royal family’s wealth.
They’ve heard how the Windsors have benefited from a recent settlement with the Treasury under which they receive tens of millions of pounds each year in taxpayer funding. They’ve heard how much the family has made from their vast private estates known as the duchies: more than a billion pounds since the last coronation. And through painstaking research they’ve found a blurring of the lines between public and private collections when the royals receive lavish official gifts.
They’ve also learned about how the monarchy has profited from its links to transatlantic slavery – and how the institution plans to investigate the extent of those links. As the coronation nears, they chase the final leads – and come to a conclusion on a final estimate of the wealth of the king.
Composite: Getty / Alamy
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