The Royal Family has agreed to pay income tax to the British state, and King Charles III has revealed that he has paid £12.9 million in tax for the year 2024-25. This is far more than any tourist guide will pay and reflects the fact that Charles is one of the richest people to have occupied the throne of the United Kingdom. His tax bill puts him among the top 100 taxpayers in the UK. The royals do not have to release their accounts, which are confidential, but the king feels that transparency is the best option for him. During the tax year 2024-25 (the most recent figures available), Prince William paid £7.76 million in tax, down from £8.34 million the previous year.

The Royal Family are supported by the Sovereign Grant (previously called the Civil List), which pays for the cost of maintaining the monarchy, including salaries of those who work for the royals. The cost of restoring Buckingham Palace is factored into this, and the Grant will cost the British taxpayer almost £100 million in 2027-28. Meanwhile, the King and Queen have decided that they will not use Buckingham Palace as a royal home, even after the renovations are completed, but will remain at Clarence House nearby, which has been their home in Central London since before his accession to the throne in 2022.

King Charles III, July 2023. Photo Credit: © White House via Wikimedia Commons.

Meanwhile, Prince William and his wife, Catherine, have decided to send their son (and the probable future king of England), Prince George, to Eton, one of our most famous public schools. It is visible from the North Terrace of Windsor Castle, near where the Wales’s family home is located. Eton College, which only takes boys, was the preferred destination of the king, who instead was sent to Gordonstoun in the Highlands of Scotland by his father, Prince Philip. Prince Philip was educated there after a chaotic and difficult childhood and has fond memories of the school. Although King Charles has never been publicly critical of Gordonstoun, he is believed to prefer Eton and sent his own sons, Princes William and Harry, there for their schooling.

Eton has educated twenty British Prime Ministers and a host of famous people. It charges £63,000 a year, including Value Added Tax, which is payable on school fees. Boys between the ages of thirteen and eighteen all board there and are given a laptop and an email address as part of their induction. Eton was founded nearly 600 years ago by a king of England, Henry the Sixth, who was interested in scholarship and religion but was not cut out for the turbulent Wars of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster, which afflicted England in the fifteenth century. Henry was eventually killed in the Tower of London, probably by Richard III, whose death at the Battle of Bosworth ended this civil war and established the Tudor Line.

Prince George Alexander Louis of Wales. Photo Credit: © Simon Dawson via Wikimedia Commons.