How many homes do you own? One? Two, perhaps? Very possibly none? It’s a different story for the Royal Family, however, as there are a total of 30 regal estates scattered around the U.K. that are owned by the crown. Buckingham Palace is naturally the most famous of the Royal residences, but typically the reigning monarch lives at Windsor Castle. King Charles’ holiday home is Scotland’s Balmoral estate, and so on.
Speaking of Balmoral, King Charles is making moves to break with tradition as he’s just filed official plans to transform the 170-year-old castle into a destination wedding venue. Balmoral is privately retained by the Royals, unlike other residences which are state-owned, so he has every right to commercialize his castle if he needs some extra cash — the upkeep on those 30 palaces must be immense, to be fair.
The development is a surprising one, though, as Charles hasn’t always been so keen to share his properties with the public. In fact, when his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, graciously gifted one of her houses to her subjects, the then-prince was left filled with “rage.”
King Charles was full of “rage” after his mother gave away a Royal residence he had his eye on
Prince Harry’s not the only one to spill Royal Family secrets in print. As Spare hits shelves once again in paperback form, it’s worth remembering that published diaries revealing the heart of the Royals’ operations from across the 20th century already beat him to the punch.
Royal biographer Kenneth Rose’s journals, documenting many personal experiences with the family members over the years, have been released posthumously following his death in 2014. One notable extract reveals a point of contention between mother and son when the queen refused to budge on handing over a Royal residence to Charles as it had already been gifted to the public.
As per Rose, in 1984 the Prince of Wales — still married to Princess Diana at the time and father to a two-year-old William and a newborn Harry — was desperate to move into Marlborough House on The Mall in London. The handy location no doubt appealed, given that it was just around the corner from both Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. However, the queen wouldn’t allow him to move in as the residence had been leased to the Commonwealth Secretariat since 1965.
“Prince Charles would love to live in Marlborough House,” Rose wrote, before quoting Charles directly, revealing some barbed comments he made about “the people.” As the prince put it: “‘I grit my teeth with rage whenever I go to some Commonwealth event there. But what can one do? Once the people get inside a building, it is impossible to throw them out.'”
Obviously, this is one small spat in a lifetime of parent-child bonding, as the now-King Charles just spoke about how much his much-missed mother shaped his life in a recent speech. It seems Charles understands the late queen’s position better these days. Notably, he hasn’t used his own supreme power to boot “the people” out of Marlborough House, as it remains the headquarters of the Commonwealth to this day.