Edward and Sophie have two grown-up children. They live in a 120-room Tudor gothic mansion set in 51 acres near Windsor. Alexandra is frail and elderly. She has the use of a six-bedroom, six reception rooms house, complete with two-room thatched summer house, gardener’s cottage and stables in the middle of Richmond Park. Andrew and Sarah are divorced and he has just been forced out of a 30-room property, also at Windsor... Straight into a cottage on the Sandringham Estate while renovations are completed on a five-bedroom farmhouse with stables nearby.
By now you’ve guessed. This is the Monopoly board existence of members of our royal family. Except theirs is a game with a difference. When you land on a square in Monopoly and it does not belong to you, you can either buy it yourself or pay rent to the owner. The higher its value the greater the amount you must cough up. Not in their “By Royal Appointment”’ version. Here, where the squares are adorned with silk and the pieces are made from real silver, there is virtually nothing owed. The recent focus has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s living arrangements — the latest is that he will be offered a temporary home at Sandringham by the king while his more permanent home Marsh Farm, also on the Norfolk estate, is readied. It has now been reported that the ex-prince’s future abode is at risk of flooding. The spotlight is now on the rest of the family. So, what is the truth about the royal finances?
