King Charles III’s message to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle could not be clearer. By the beginning of the summer of 2023, the Sussexes will have to have emptied Frogmore Cottage, the house that was given to them at their wedding, to give way to the fallen Prince Andrew. Violent, this decision would be only the beginning of the great project of the king to modernize the Firm, according to the British press.
After the “Megxit“, here comes the time of the “Frogxit”. More than three years after the shocking departure of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for the United States, Charles III has finally reacted. On February 27, the British press revealed that the king had, at the time of the publication of his youngest son’s memoirs, initiated deportation proceedings targeting the latter and his wife. By the beginning of the summer of 2023, the Sussexes will have to empty Frogmore Cottage, their only home in England, and let Prince Andrew, who is far from being the monarch’s protégé, settle there. Shockingly, this decision has put the English in a state of turmoil and would even divide the royalty. But they should be prepared, because according to the national media, this would only be the first step in the plan imagined by the 74-year-old monarch to dust off the Firm.
This Friday, March 3, The Express announces the color: “Meghan and Harry‘s eviction is just the beginning as the ‘new sheriff in town’ tightens the royal purse.” After more than 70 years of waiting his turn, Charles III is indeed determined to modernize the Organization he has always found outdated. Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and Prince Andrew will therefore not be the only members of the royal family to be affected by this wind of change, warn several experts in the English press.
Royal properties transformed into museums? The great project of Charles III
Interviewed by Fox News Digital, writer Christopher Andersen, an expert on the Windsor clan, sees in this difficult choice of the king the proof that he is determined to upset the established order. “Charles is making good on his promise to streamline the monarchy by cutting spending. I’m sure Andrew won’t be the only member of the Royal family to whom the new monarch will tighten his belt,” he says. Back in 2011, Charles pushed for his nieces, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, to be stripped of their royal security after a dispute over the cost of it, then amounting to 500,000 pounds.
At the time, their father, now forced to move from Royal Lodge to Frogmore Cottage, fought against the removal of the security, but his efforts were thwarted by Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall. With no taxpayer-funded security despite her higher profile in the pecking order, she was the undisputed proof that reducing the expenses of active members of the firm was feasible.
According to The Express, the royals were told in February that they would now receive less money from the Duchy of Lancaster, which the king now owns and which is worth an estimated £669 million. The idea of Camilla Parker Bowles’ husband is also to transform, for a few months each year, several of the properties that the family owns but uses very little, into museums. At the suggestion of the king’s advisors, the Scottish castle of Balmoral, so dear to the heart of Elizabeth II, could be opened to the public and house an exhibition paying tribute to the 70 years of the late queen’s reign.
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