Ebook: Royal legacy: how the royal family have made, spent and passed on their wealth from Queen Victoria to Queen Elizabeth II

Over the last century the British Royal Family have benefited from special privileges like secret wills to keep their private wealth away from public scrutiny. How can Prince Charles afford to live so lavishly, many ask, and how is the Queen able to bankroll other members of her family? With the discovery of unpublished royal wills, little-known royal auction records and recently-released Treasury papers, David McClure has pieced together a mosaic of the landed property, jewelery and artworks that together forms the bedrock of the royal family's inherited fortune. But like all inheritance tales it's also a highly human story full of greedy relatives, family splits and skeletons in the closet, and one made all the more timely by the current succession process whereby the Queen hands over some royal duties to the younger generation. Nosy and irreverent, Royal Legacy takes a peek behind the palace curtains.;The Queen's true worth, 2014 -- Edward the Caresser, 1901-1910 -- Mary's bad brother, 1910-1922 -- The Princes at war, 1936-1945 -- The Princesses of nothing, 1948-1952 -- George and Mary's legacy, 1952-1953 -- The Duchess and the Countess, 1960-1968 -- The burial of bad news, 1969-1971 -- The Windsors and their wealth, 1972-1986 -- Diana's estate of war, 1997-1998 -- Margaret, mustique and money, 2002 -- From Queen Mother to daughter, 2002 -- A royal car boot sale, 2006 -- The Princess's "love child", 2006-2008 -- The storming of the palace, 2008 -- The best-laid plans of Alice and men, 2008-2010 -- Charles's cash cow, 2010-2014 -- Sovereign grant or sovereign greed? 2011-2013 -- The Duke's farewell, 2014 -- A nation mourns, 2022.