Explained: how did Queen Elizabeth II make her money?

Queen Elizabeth II : The taxpayer funds the British monarch's lifestyle while they and the royal family also receive income from private holdings, the details of which are not fully known.

An annual allowance from the government called the Sovereign Grant covered the queen's official expenses and those of other royals representing her.

In the financial year 2020-2021, this amounted to almost £86 million.

The Sovereign Grant is set as equivalent to 15 percent of the profits of the Crown Estate – which is a huge portfolio of land, property and other assets that belongs to the ruling monarch but is independently managed.

The Crown Estate's net income is handed to the British government’s Treasury.

Private income

The Privy Purse is the name for the monarch's private income, which mainly comes from the Duchy of Lancaster estate, owned by the monarchy since the Middle Ages.

Its assets include land, financial investments and property that are worth more than £500 million.

The estate is made up of 315 residential properties, as well as commercial properties in central London and thousands of acres of agricultural land.

Private property

The queen owned Balmoral Castle in Scotland, with an estimated value of £100 million, and Sandringham country estate, worth some £50 million. These are not publicly funded.

The queen also privately owned some items in the Royal Collection, including a stamp collection that belonged to her grandfather, king George V, valued at £100 million.

The queen's passion for racing horses also earned her more than £7 million in prize money, according to estimates by myracing.com, although this excluded their costly upkeep.

The Crown Jewels, which have been valued at some £3 billion, symbolically belonged to the queen but are automatically transferred to her successor.