The new ‘Carolean era’ is not so new, after all.
King Charles III of England ascended to the throne decided to make his long-awaited reign a turning point that’ll modernize British Monarchy and take it into the future.
But in fact, Charles is now demonstrated to be misusing a medieval feudal custom to profit from assets of dead people. So much for modernizing.
The king is reportedly profiting from the deaths of thousands of people in the north-west of England.
These deceased individuals had assets that are secretly being used to upgrade a commercial property empire managed by Charles’ hereditary estate.
The Duchy of Lancaster is a controversial land and property estate that generates huge profits for the ‘modernizing’ King.
The Guardian reported:
“Financial assets known as bona vacantia, owned by people who died without a will or known next of kin, are collected by the duchy. Over the last 10 years, it has collected more than £60m in the funds. It has long claimed that, after deducting costs, bona vacantia revenues are donated to charities.
However, only a small percentage of these revenues is being given to charity. Internal duchy documents seen by the Guardian reveal how funds are secretly being used to finance the renovation of properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit.”
There you go. It’s feudalism pure, and simple.
The duchy inherits these bona vacantia funds from people whose last known address was in an area that comprises Lancashire and parts of Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Cumbria.
Officials at the king’s estate had Duchy’s license to use these funds on a broad array of its profit-generating portfolio, knowing that there could result in an ‘incidental’ benefit to the king’s personal income.
Town houses, holiday lets, rural cottages, agricultural buildings, a former petrol station and even barns got upgrades that included new roofs, double-glazing windows, boiler installations and replacements of doors and lintels.
“Three sources familiar with the duchy’s expenditure confirmed the estate was using revenues collected from dead citizens to refurbish its profitable property portfolio, making considerable savings for the estate. One said duchy insiders regarded the bona vacantia expenditure, which has until now not been publicly disclosed, as akin to ‘free money’ and a ‘slush fund’.”
The practice is making rental properties more profitable, increasing the tens of millions in duchy profits each year. In his first annual payout since inheriting the estate from Queen Elisabeth, Charles received £26m from the Duchy of Lancaster.
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