As apparently endless crowds drifted through the royal grounds of London, queuing to lay flowers and messages of reverence around Buckingham Palace for their late Queen, they were blessed by the sight of white swans gliding serenely on the lake of St James’s Park.It’s one of the peculiar royal prerogatives passed to him on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Charles, we hasten to reassure, is a committed conservationist and is not about to roast a swan, nor a whale or dolphin. All this now goes to Charles’s eldest son and heir apparent to the throne, William, new Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. Charles attends a consecration ceremony in 2004 at Poundbury, a traditionalist village built on Duchy of Cornwall land.His fortune now rests on his new inheritance of the Duchy of Lancaster, which serves to help support each monarch.
The Duchy of Lancaster is valued at around £700 million , though the sovereign can’t touch the principal because the entire estate must pass to the monarch that succeeds him or her.