Good morning and welcome to The Royalist Sunday newsletter. For any new arrivals, this is always free on a Sunday. Please share!
I’m happy to report that I’m back home on home turf, and many thanks again to Philippe for holding the fort while I was away.
Of course, the Royal family is basking this weekend in the conclusion of the triumphant tour to the United States, and you can take your pick of the UK papers’ celebratory pieces detailing how the King has stepped out from under his mother’s shadow, etc., etc., etc.
There is no doubt that the tour was a great success; however, Charles is back home now, and, let’s be honest: there is still one massive scandal hanging over the King, which has done enormous damage during his reign. And of course, that is his brother’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein.
Now, a sickening piece in the Sunday Times details the relationship between Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson, who, as readers of The Royalist will be well aware, once had a profound relationship with King Charles himself.
Mandelson, the disgraced Labor politician, was brought on board by Charles in the months before Diana’s death as part of “Project Camilla,” the campaign to rehabilitate the then-Camilla Parker Bowles in the public’s eyes, alongside Mark Bolland.
And after Diana died, Mandelson became one of the regular recipients of Charles’s late-night phone calls in which the prince would moan about how unfair his life and portrayal in the media was, etc., etc.
This investigation in the Times traces the Andrew-Mandelson relationship —made very famous, of course, by that horrible photograph of Andrew and Mandelson in bathrobes sitting with Epstein, having apparently just gotten out of a hot tub or sauna or had a massage, thought to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard—to its origins.
It now appears that Mandelson and Andrew first met — unbelievably — at a lunch to support the NSPCC, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the leading UK charity involved in protecting children from sexual abuse.
The Times has a doleful interview with a Giles Pegram, the former director of fundraising at the NSPCC, who says, and I quote: “It’s horrible. Can anyone blame me for having brought Andrew and Mandelson together given the circumstances at the time? Do I regret it? Yes, obviously I do. If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done it. If there was a scandal that was related to children, we wouldn’t have come within a mile of it.”
It also turns out that both Andrew and Mandelson knew Ghislaine Maxwell independently, and Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s lawyer at the time, is quoted in the piece describing them spending time together on Martha’s Vineyard.
In 2000, Andrew was being lined up to be given the post of UK Special Representative for International Trade and Investment by the government, in which Mandelson was a powerful figure.
Charles was reportedly very concerned about it, regarding it as “a disaster waiting to happen.” And a UK security official is quoted as saying the appointment “would never have happened if it weren’t for Mandelson’s advocacy.” So Mandelson, friend of Epstein, is instrumental in Andrew getting the trade envoy gig that gave him cover to gallivant around the globe, often to Epstein’s benefit.
Alastair Watson, Andrew’s private secretary from 2003 to 2012, told the Sunday Times: “They got on very well. Mandelson used to be charming and smooth and reflect what the people he’s talking to want to hear, so it was very cordial.”
The piece goes on to detail the deepening relationship — the invitations back and forth, the parties, the visits to royal residences. A must-read.
William’s $7 Million Tax Bill Revealed
Also in the Sunday Times, a significant story on Prince William’s finances. The paper reveals that the Prince of Wales pays up to $7 million in income tax a year, putting him in the top 0.002 percent of taxpayers in the UK.
For years, William has resisted calls to reveal his tax bill, unlike his father.
The majority of his income comes from the more than $20 million a year he receives from the Duchy of Cornwall, the private estate of land worth about $1.1 billion that has been bestowed on the heir to the throne since the 14th century.
Transparency is lacking because the Prince of Wales is not legally liable to pay income tax on the duchy money — he does so voluntarily, as Charles did before him.
In the 2023–24 financial year, William’s first running the Duchy, he received a record surplus of $23.6 million. About $13.5 million of that is thought to be taxable, with his total income tax bill estimated at between $5 million and $7 million.
A Kensington Palace spokesperson confirmed that William “pays the top rate of income and capital gains tax on all his personal income, including receipts from the Duchy.”
The pressure to be more transparent has increased since a Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches investigation, which revealed that the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster make millions by charging the army, navy, NHS, and schools to use their land, rivers, and seashores. Following that investigation, William stopped imposing rents on lifeboat stations, the fire service, village halls, and school playing fields — but he has continued to collect income from Dartmoor Prison, which has been vacant for nearly two years after the discovery of toxic radon gas. The lease is being assessed, but in the meantime it costs the taxpayer about $1.5 million a year.
Norman Baker, a former Home Office minister, argues the duchies should be rolled into the Crown Estate for the benefit of the Treasury, calling them “royal slush funds.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source theroyalist.substack.com ’
