Silly Royalty question

[Mickey Fliers]

Who "owns" all of the property that the British Royal Family uses? Does it actually belong to the Queen or does it belong to the people of the UK? How about the Crown Jewels? Do those belong to the family or the people?

Just pondering.

 

[JohnsPrincess]

I could be totally wrong, but I'm pretty sure they family owns most of it. Passed down from generation to generation. Like some of the crowns were made out of other jewels that other kings and such had bought for people, were given as gifts, etc etc. Same with the houses. The Queen owns...2 or 3. When William gets married I just read that he'd be gifted a house, etc.

 

[Sparx]

This could be totally wrong, but I always thought it was kind of like all the clothes and jewels that the pope wears. They're his right now, but when he's not pope anymore they go to the new pope. The land/crown jewels will belong to whomever is the figurehead.

 

[whatcateydid]

It's maybe embarrassing that I'm British and had to google this, but here you go.

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/tce_faqs.htm

The Crown Estate belongs to the reigning monarch ‘in right of The Crown’, that is, it is inherent with the accession to the throne. But it is not the private property of the monarch – it cannot be sold by the monarch, nor do revenues from it belong to the sovereign.

The Government also does not own The Crown Estate. It is managed by an independent organisation – established by statute – headed by a Board (also known as The Crown Estate Commissioners), and the surplus revenue from the estate is paid each year to the Treasury for the benefit of all UK taxpayers.

To explain further, one analogy that could be used is that The Crown Estate is the property equivalent of the Crown jewels – part of the national heritage and held by Her Majesty The Queen as sovereign, but not available for her private use.

 

[Mickey Fliers]

It's maybe embarrassing that I'm British and had to google this, but here you go.

http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/tce_faqs.htm

Thanks for this. I was just trying to figure it all out. It seems as if all of the property and Crown Jewels belong to "Title". It doesn't really matter who is in that "title". I wonder if the Sovereign has to ask permission to use certain jewels or does she just say "I feel like wearing my green tiara today. Please get it from the tower".

 

[walden]

Thanks for this. I was just trying to figure it all out. It seems as if all of the property and Crown Jewels belong to "Title". It doesn't really matter who is in that "title". I wonder if the Sovereign has to ask permission to use certain jewels or does she just say "I feel like wearing my green tiara today. Please get it from the tower".

at the green tiara!

It gets even more complicated. The Queen does have a huge private fortune of her own, as does Prince of Wales with the Duchy of Cornwall. The Queen owns both Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House and acres upon acres of land in counties like Canada personally. Taxpayers don't have to pay for the up keep of Balmoral and Sandringham. They do for Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. People got quite annoyed because repairs to Windsor after the fire came from government coffers when the Queen is stinking rich!