Queen Elizabeth II has been dethroned by Dutch Queen Beatrix – on the Forbes magazine rich list, that is. Despite her sizable £295-million fortune, which includes the extensive Balmoral Estate in Scotland, Elizabeth was trumped by Beatrix, whose personal worth is listed as £2.3 billion.
While the Queen of England owns £105 million in real estate, plus personal possessions including art, furniture, horses and jewellery valued at £7.7 million, Forbes noted that much of the property associated with her, including the crown jewels and Buckingham Palace, belongs to the British state.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and the royal House of Orange own a reported two per cent stake in the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which at the current stock price weighs in at £1.9 billion. In her own right, the queen earns an annual tax-free salary from the Dutch state, which last year totalled £2.2 million.
The magazine’s 15th annual survey mentions the famously wealthy Sultan of Brunei and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia among the richest, but fails to rate them citing a lack of information necessary to determine their monetary worth.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was once again named the world’s richest man, with a reported worth of £41.2 billion.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
