King Charles and Prince William butt heads over $152 million

As Balmoral opens to paying tourists for the first time, a split between the King and the Prince of Wales has burst into view.

In 1852, homesick German transplant Prince Albert decided to buy himself a little something

that reminded him of zee Motherland and spent 30,000 guineas on a Scottish estate called

Balmoral.

Bertie, deciding the castle wasn’t big enough, knocked it down and then proceeded to build a whole new one a hundred yards away. That property soon became he and Frau Victoria’s (Queen and Empress of India to you and I) favourite getaway.

171 years later, Bertie’s 50,000 acre Deeside estate is still where the royal family goes to

enjoy their well-earned summer breaks after ten months of toil and graft in the name of

crown, country and currying favour with the great unwashed.

But this year something entirely new is happening at Balmoral.

As I write these words, tourists from Des Moines and Dortmund are tramping their way

through the very rooms through which, in only a few short weeks, Queen Camilla will amble

through looking for her favourite Dunhill lighter and wondering if it’s too early for a stiffener.

Balmoral is open for business – and not everyone is happy. For the first time, King Charles

has opened the doors of the castle for tourists – and it now turns out that son Prince William is less than thrilled that the slack-jawed masses are currently being shepherded through one of the royal family’s most private spaces.

In April 3,400 tickets for the Balmoral tour, costing A$190 (£100), went on sale, selling out in

two hours, thus netting His Majesty a tidy A$646,000. (Charles personally inherited the Scottish property, estimated to be worth $152 million, from the late Queen.)

Those tours started last week and even though shoe covers are being worn to prevent the green, blue, yellow and red check pattern Stewart tartan carpet bearing the brunt of all

those tromping touristy Nikes, still, the sanctum sanctorum of the House of Windsor has

been breached.

(Previously, only the Balmoral gardens were really open and this year’s tours are the first

time the actual castle has been made publicly accessible in any significant way.)

Balmoral Castle in Scotland.

Friends of William’s have told the Sunday Times’ royal correspondent Roya Nikkhah that the

41-year-old “did not instantly warm to Charles’ vision of the public wandering through the

rooms that his children, George, Charlotte and Louis, have the run of each summer.”

The reason for this difference in opinion comes down to a certain degree of beady-eyed pragmatism on His Majesty’s part, according to Nikkhah. She reports that “a friend of

Charles said he isn’t as sentimental as William”.

“With the exception of Birkhall [the home Charles shares with Camilla on the Balmoral

estate], he feels like everywhere is temporary accommodation, rather than his place of

nurture,” the King’s pal told the Times.

“It is to do with his upbringing, I don’t think he ever stayed in one place for more than three months at a time, so he regards them more as lodgings than home. He by nature is someone who opens doors to people, not closes them.”

Which sounds nice and pleasantly bumper sticker-y but this points to a bigger split between

the pair.

As a friend of William’s told The Daily Beast’s Tom Sykes: “William likes his privacy but he

knows better than to pick a fight with his dad. Charles has always been an advocate of

opening all these places up.”

The key word to understanding the Prince of Wales’ more uncompromising view is simple –

“privacy”. He and wife Kate, the Princess of Wales have guarded their three young childrens’

privacy with leonine-like intensity, ensuring that their childhoods bear no resemblance to

their father’s. Every day they are ferried to school and viola lessons and dentists

appointments without having to fear that a lurking pap might pop out from behind a bush to

chase them.

Maintaining that shielding their family from mass view, as much as relatively possible

given the circumstances, doesn’t exactly tally with busloads of visitors being urged to exit

through the gift shop.

This Balmoral difference of opinion between father and son reflects something bigger too –

that generationally and attitudinally, in some ways, William could not be more alien to

Charles.

King Charles and Prince William. Picture: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

In the last month, his Kensington Palace office has released two official photos of the prince

wearing shorts – SHORTS. Prince Albert probably didn’t show Victoria his knees until several

years and children into their marriage. (She probably only revealed her elbows to him on

their emerald wedding anniversary.)

Only this week a video emerged of William whizzing up to Windsor Castle to visit the King on an electric scooter, just a man in a jumper going between meetings, without any trailing

retinue of aides, staffers, and private secretaries bearing his favourite Caran D’Ache pen

aloft on a velvet pillow.

Charles has never had an actual paying job; in 2015 William signed on with the Bond Air

Services company as an air ambulance pilot.

Charles’ idea of slumming it is having to make do with a British Airways first class flight, the

RAF jet being too busy; William and Kate regularly fly on budget airlines.

My favourite story of all time – that Charles, and not that long ago, yelped when coming

face-to-face with Glad Wrap for the first time; William regularly did his own supermarket

shop at university and in his 20s.

Now on top of this we have their diverging views on billions of dollars of real estate.

The ‘open, Devonshire teas available’ shingle being hung on the Balmoral front gate comes

after years of reports detailing the King’s plans to turn “private spaces to public places”.

Take Buckingham Palace, where a nearly ten-year $600 million-plus renovation is nearing its

conclusion. No one has lived inside the palace since the advent of the pandemic and no one

may ever again.

The Times has previously reported that Charles “doesn’t see it as a viable future home or a

house that’s fit for purpose in the modern world. He feels that its upkeep, both from a cost

and environmental perspective, is not sustainable.” The palace could instead be turned into

an official State guesthouse for visiting presidents and a gallery, “a source who knows the

King well” has also told the Times.

(Anyone looking to book a venue for a wedding, bar mitzvah or gender reveal from 2027

onwards, stay tuned.)

Only this week, the east wing of Buckingham Palace was opened up for tours for the first

time in the 300-year-old property’s history. (Yours to visit at only $142-a-person.)

This is all fine and dandy for now, but what happens when there is a change of reign? With

Balmoral and possibly even Buckingham Palace facing increasingly commercial futures,

could or would William reverse course when he is the one calling the shots?

If nothing else, it might be hard for William V to turn his back on the money. For one person

to visit Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, Sandringham, Highgrove and Balmoral, the price

is now $514 (£270.50). Kings might not carry cash but they still need a hell of a lot of it.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’

experience working with Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as King Charles and Prince William butt heads over $152 million