The Firm vs. the Family: How Does the British Monarchy Work?

The British monarchy is both a family and a sweeping institution with economic and political ties. Learn more about it in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/genealogy/firm-vs-royal-family.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey Brainstuff
Lauren Bolabom here. The world was shocked when Prince Harry
and his wife Megan Markle a k a. The Duke
and Dutchess of Suessex, announced they were leaving Britain's royal
family in January of A second jolt occurred when the

(00:22):
two sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey in
March and revealed how disheartened and quote trapped they felt
by the Royal institution. They also tried to explain a
bit about how the crown operates. At one point, Marcole said,
so there's the family and then there's the people that
are running the institution. Those are two separate things, and

(00:45):
it's important to be able to compartmentalize that because the Queen,
for example, has always been wonderful to me. It's a complicated,
convoluted system. The royal family consists of Queen Elizabeth the
Second and her husband Prince Philip, also known as the
Duke of Edinburgh, plus therefore children Princess Charles, Andrew and
Edward and Princess Anne, and each of their spouses Elizabeth

(01:07):
and Phillips. Eight grandchildren and nine great grandchildren are also royals.
But this family is also part of a sprawling business
institution with thousands of employees who manage the royal affairs
as with any other company. These employees work in human resources,
public relations, information technology, housekeeping and so on, in addition

(01:29):
to occupying visible roles such as personal secretaries, drivers, and security.
About a century ago, King George the sixth, Elizabeth's father
dubbed this combination of business and clan as the firm.
With so many employees and such prominence, the firm requires
a lot of money to operate. In the bill came

(01:52):
to eighty two point four million pounds or about a
hundred and fourteen million dollars US. These funds don't come
from taxpayers per se, but from a convoluted system with
real estate at its core. And here's how it works.
Every year, the UK government gives the Royal household a
monetary allotment called the Sovereign Grant. The money in the

(02:14):
grant is a percentage of the surplus revenue from the
Crown Estate, which is an extensive real estate portfolio belonging
to the Crown. The portfolios profits mainly come through annual
appreciation and farming in the monarchy received of the Crown
estates surplus net income jump from the previous fifteent plus

(02:35):
an additional ten percent allotment that will last a decade
to refurbish Buckingham Palace. The government retained the remainder of
the surplus for the article that this episode is based on,
How Stuff Works spoke via email with Laura Clancy, a
media lecturer at the UK's Lancaster University and the author
of the upcoming book Running the Family Firm, How the

(02:58):
Monarchy Manages Its Image and Our Money. Clancy explained that
Queen Elizabeth the Second doesn't personally own the Crown Estate. Instead,
it's a publicly owned property portfolio held in trust by
the Crown, meaning that should the entire monarchy be abolished,
all those profits would go to the public. Plancy also

(03:20):
notes that the sovereign grant is often reported to be
the official cost of the monarchy, but that's not quite accurate.
The Royal family security is paid for by the Metropolitan Police,
plus local councils pick up the tab for royal visits,
meaning the actual cost is greater. Working royals like the Queen,
Prince Charles Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess

(03:42):
of Cambridge, received funds from the Sovereign Grant to support
their work, travel, staff, clothing and residents renovations. They do
not receive set salaries, however, and nor are they typically
allowed to do paid work. But the Queen receives a
substantial income from the Private Duchy of Lancaster, a set
of commercial, agricultural and residential properties that was attached to

(04:05):
the monarchy in the year twelve sixty. As of it
generated more than million pounds for her. That's nearly thirty
five million dollars US. Similarly, as heir to the throne,
Prince Charles receives income from the Private Duchy of Cornwall,
also established centuries ago. The two will pass on some

(04:26):
of this income to their airs, though it isn't known
how much. And as if all of this wasn't enough,
the firm's complexity involves a lot more than money. Another
aspect that's difficult for outsiders to grasp is its myriad rules, regulations,
and traditions. Some are non controversial, like bowing or curtseying

(04:47):
to the Queen, but many others may seem silly or
off putting. Women are supposed to always wear pantyhose, for example,
and never cross their legs while sitting. Makeup is supposed
to be minimal, and couples are not supposed to engage
in any public displays of affection, not even handholding. Oh
and you're not supposed to close your own car door.

(05:08):
But who's making these rules, insisting that they be followed,
or allowing them at times to be broken. Clancy says
it's unclear. She said the operations of the monarchy are
complex and there are many different individuals involved in running
the institution, from public relations to HR to financial advisors. Furthermore,

(05:29):
tradition is important as it's a form of historical legitimacy
for the monarchy, and this is where things loop back
to Prince Harry and Markel because one other major component
of the firm is the Royal Rota or the Pool System,
comprising a group of reporters and photographers from seven UK publications.

(05:50):
For the past forty years, the royal family has granted
the Rota special access to their royal engagements in exchange
for coverage, as coverage helps maintain the monarch key's relevance.
These press members are expected to share material with each other. Today,
four of the rod of publications are tabloids, including The
Daily Mail and Son, and these ROTA journalists often write

(06:12):
about marcle harshly and sometimes in racist ways. One of
the biggest reasons that the couple left the Royal family,
according to the Winfrey interview and other press accounts, appears
to be their distress and discussed with the ROTA and
their wish to escape its orbit. UK's National Union of
Journalists expressed concern at the time of the decision in

(06:34):
to leave the ROTA, stating that as the Royal Family
is partially funded by the public quote, we cannot have
a situation where journalists writing about the Duke and Duchess
of Sussex can only do so if they have the
Royal Seal of approval. And although their separation from the
firm and the ROTA means no more income from the

(06:55):
Sovereign Grant or the Duchy of Cornwall, the two should
be just fine. In step back from their royal duties.
Harry and Megan, as they would now like to be called,
are allowed to earn a living on their own. The
couple quickly inked a three year podcasting deal with Spotify
it's allegedly worth twenty five million dollars, and a five
year Netflix deal allegedly worth over a hundred million. These

(07:17):
deals will allow them to produce documentaries, films, podcasts, kids programming,
and other content down the Road. Today's episode is based
on the article the Firm Versus the Family? How does
the British Monarchy Really Work? On how stuff works dot Com?
Written by Melanie Radzkie McManus. Brain Stuff is a production

(07:39):
of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works
dot Com and is produced by Tyler Clang. Four more
podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.