With the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last week, the Prince of Wales became King Charles III. But within the business he has run for more than half a century, the new monarch was known simply as “the boss”.
During his record-breaking period as heir to the throne, Charles devoted much of his energy to shaping the Duchy of Cornwall, an estate created almost 700 years ago to fund the next in line to be monarch, along with other business interests such as his Duchy. Original food range.
The Duchy of Cornwall “isn’t just a business. It encompasses everything he’s passionate about,” Charles’ wife Camilla told an ITV documentary three years ago.
The duchy owns almost 130,000 acres of land, including the Isles of Scilly, large parts of Dartmoor and 260 farms, and has £92m of financial investment. But most of its income comes from its commercial property portfolio, investing in assets such as offices and retail parks. It generated a surplus of £23m in 2021-22, of which £21m was paid to Charles.
To run the Duchy, Charles surrounded himself with business people. The current secretary and keeper of records, equivalent to an executive director, is Alastair Martin, a former partner in the estate agency Carter Jonas.
The Duchy of Cornwall’s properties include Poundbury, the village outside Dorchester that was started in the 1980s, combining Charles’ preference for period “traditional” style architecture © Chris Ison/PA
The Duchy’s council-like ‘council’, chaired by Charles until his mother’s death, includes investor Jonathan Ruffer and former SSE boss Ian Marchant, while hedge fund manager Michael Hintze he is an advisor, according to his latest accounts.
However, Charles himself has been “very hands-on”, Martin told the ITV documentary. “He’s met all of our major tenants . . . I have regular briefings with him,” she said.
A person who has worked with the King added: “He [Charles] has shaped the Duchy of Cornwall, no doubt, like the Queen in her office.”
Alongside holdings aimed primarily at financial performance and historic assets such as the Oval cricket ground, the portfolio reflects Charles’ concerns.
His properties include Poundbury, the village on the outskirts of Dorchester that he started in the 1980s, combining Charles’s preference for “traditional” period-style architecture with once niche but now popular ideas such as streets designed to discourage car traffic. A newer estate at Nansledan in Cornwall follows similar principles.
The duchy owns some of Charles’ residences, including Highgrove House in Gloucestershire and Llwynywermod, the former Carmarthenshire home of a relative of Anne Boleyn’s which he bought for £1.2m in 2006. Also manages holiday homes and a plant nursery.
Charles, mocked in the 1980s for saying he talked to plants, was an early adopter of environmentalism and the Duchy this year set out plans to achieve net zero carbon emissions by the early 2030s.
Charles also developed Duchy Originals, launched in 1990 as an outlet for organic food grown on his Highgrove estate. © Dan Kitwood/WPA/Getty Images
The Duchy of Cornwall was established in 1337 by King Edward III for his son and heir Prince Edward, “to preserve the state and honor of the said Duke according to the nobility of his kind”.
Charles became entitled to his full income at the age of 21, unlike his brothers who along with their parents were funded by the separate Duchy of Lancaster.
This “enable[d] that he enjoyed a level of luxury unmatched by his brothers, and would definitely set him apart from them,” according to a biography by the American writer Sally Bedell Smith. Some funds also go to their charities.
Until Charles’ son Harry stepped aside from the monarchy in 2020, income from the duchy supported his children’s households, although the family had no access to the capital value of their assets.
As heir to the throne, Charles also developed a new business venture: Duchy Originals, known for its oat biscuits and launched in 1990 as an outlet for organic food grown on his Highgrove estate.
In 2004, the company’s growth led him to boast to British diplomats in Spain that “I’m a self-made millionaire!”, according to Bedell Smith.
But an ill-fated expansion into the US, combined with the 2008 financial crisis, pushed Duchy Originals into a heavy loss. It was rescued by supermarket Waitrose, which now manufactures and sells the food under the Waitrose Duchy Organic brand. It posted profits of £3.6m last year and operates separately from the Duchy of Cornwall.
In the Duchy, there is no doubt that Charles and his advisers have made sound financial decisions, helping to increase the net income from just £95,000 in 1952.
Sir Bertie Ross, who previously ran the property, has recalled withdrawing shares before the financial crisis. A shift to urban commercial property significantly increased yields from the 1990s onwards, journalist David McClure has reported.
But the duchy has also been helped by its special status. While Charles voluntarily began paying income tax alongside his mother in 1993, the duchy is not liable for corporation or capital gains tax. It also has other legal exemptions, such as the requirement to sell the freeholds of houses to tenants.
In 2013, the House of Commons public accounts committee said the Treasury should scrutinize the Duchy more closely and warned that its “tax exemption could mean that competing companies do not have a level playing field in which to operate “.
Lord Tony Berkeley, a Labor peer based in Cornwall, has waged a long but unsuccessful campaign to challenge the structure of the duchy and make it more transparent.
The dukedom now passes to Charles’ eldest son, Prince William, who has been visiting the estate for several years to learn about the business, and Berkeley expressed hope that this will herald a change, saying: “I hope William will make a in-depth review of how it works and how it could work better.”
But that seems unlikely. William told the ITV documentary: “I’m not going to rock the boat. I’m going to do pretty much the same as my dad does.”