The Guardian reported in its exclusive report that staff of the UK's National Archives have allegedly censored documents showing how the late Queen Elizabeth II concealed details of a relative's wealth from the public by withdrawing the papers from the public domain to remove parts of them before re-publishing.
In 2022, staff at the National Archives in Kew removed a file chronicling official discussions about the royal wills between 1957 and 1970.
The file was previously opened to the public in 2018.
The publication further revealed that the details being redacted contained a request from the late monarch to keep the will of one of her relatives classified, a practice that has become a contentious issue for the British monarchy and the House of Windsor, which has spanned decades.
The documents revealed that the relative in question was Princess Mary, Countess of Harewood, sister of Kings Edward VIII and George VI, and Elizabeth's aunt.
The National Archives said that the documents had been removed in consultation with the British Ministry of Justice as they purportedly contained information relating to communication with the monarch, which was kept secret under a section of the Freedom of Information Act.
Redactions Contain Elizabeth's Request to Hide Aunt's Will
It was said that the royal family was able to score a concession from a British law requiring citizens to make their wills public where they could be allowed to prevent the public from finding out the assets acquired by the Windsor family and how these were distributed to relatives, friends, or staff.
In its latest estimates, The Guardian estimated that Elizabeth's eldest son, King Charles III, had a personal fortune of £1.8 billion ($2.29 billion)
The censored documents contained a direct request from Elizabeth to keep one of such wills over 50 years ago.
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Challenging Legal Loopholes
One of the ways the Windsors have kept details of their wealth secret was by exploiting an obscure legal procedure to obtain court orders to keep wills of family members - including remote ones like Danish prince George Valdemar Carl Axel, a relative of Elizabeth's husband and Charles's father, Prince Philip - secret beyond their death.
The wills of Philip, as well as that of Elizabeth's mother and sister, Queen Mary and Princess Margaret, have also been kept confidential since 2002.
However, the secrecy of the practice has been recently challenged amid controversy that the procedure gave the Windsors a right not granted to ordinary British citizens. Criticisms have also been thrown at the royal family, namely that their wills were being kept secret to conceal how much they had accumulated from public funds.
Buckingham Palace declined to respond to The Guardian's question on whether Elizabeth requested other wills to be hidden from the public.
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