Andrew Windsor, the English commoner formerly known as prince, was required to pay what amounts to a single peppercorn a year to rent the royal 30-room mansion where he’s lived for three decades.
The odd rent arrangement dates back centuries to a time when the spicy little seeds brought a saucier price than today and were frequently used as a symbolic sum in English real estate deals that required payment to be legally validated, the New York Post reports.
One peppercorn is typically a stand-in for the likes of a $US1 ($A1.50) rent in a lease today, according to the Guardian, and it is unlikely Prince Andrew has been actually handing over a little black ball to the royal family every year since he moved into the Royal Lodge on Windsor Castle’s grounds in 2003.
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Andrew Windsor was stripped of his royal titles in October. Picture: Eamonn McCormack/Getty Images
But even though Andrew is already on his way out of the digs, thanks to his ties to late financier Jeffrey Epstein, politicians are still demanding answers about the nutty set-up.
“There is considerable and understandable public interest in the spending of public money in relation to Prince Andrew, which in part stems from the fact that he is no longer a working royal and from serious and disturbing allegations made against him,” MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown wrote in an October 29 letter to the Treasury and Crown, the outlet said.
Andrew is being forced to leave Royal Lodge, his home on the Windsor Castle grounds for more than 20 years.
Andrew is getting the boot form the Royal Lodge after being stripped of his princely titles over his close friendship with Epstein.
Andrew denied the allegations against him, but it seemed to be enough for King Charles, who stripped his younger brother of his royal titles and taxpayer support in late October and ordered him to vacate the Royal Lodge.
But Britain’s elected officials aren’t entirely satisfied with Randy Andy’s royal exile — and are demanding an accounting of how he was supported at the Royal Lodge for years.
Andrew was renting the 30-rrom mansion for what amounted to “one peppercorn” per year.
Andrew reportedly made a one-time payment of about $US1.3 million ($A2 million) when he first acquired a 75-year-lease on the Royal Lodge in 2003 — worth about enough peppercorns to fill a good-size grinder — and has since paid for around $US10 million ($A15 million) in renovations on the property.
He is now expected to be moved far away from the royal family to a home on Sandringham Estate, after reportedly demanding two homes on the Windsor grounds — Frogmore Cottage and Adelaide Cottage, where Prince Harry and Prince William formerly lived with their families — in return for leaving the Royal Lodge.
Andrew — whose only known source of personally earned income is a small pension from his time in the Royal Navy — will have his life privately funded by King Charles himself going forward, according to Buckingham Palace.
Parts of this story first appeared in the New York Post and were republished with permission.
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