Prince Charles criticised for using £3million feudal cash to fund his own charities

Duke of Cornwall's title means he becomes owner of assets of anyone living in the county who dies ‘intestate’

Grants have been given to his former public school Gordonstoun



Thousands of pounds also given to his own charitable trusts



Critics say Royal 'abusing the loyalty' of the Cornish people



Prince Charles used his feudal entitlements to £3.3million in unclaimed estates to support his own charities

Prince Charles has used his feudal entitlement to £3.3m of the unclaimed legacies of dead people to fund his own charities and support his old Scottish private school which he once described as ‘Colditz with kilts’.

His title as Duke of Cornwall means he becomes the owner of the assets of anyone living in the county of Cornwall who dies ‘intestate’, meaning who dies without a will or known relations.

Last year this entitlement provided him with more than £450,000 and he is sitting on £3.3m in cash from years of collecting Cornish legacies, according to latest accounts seen by the Guardian.

In 2012 the benevolent fund he set up to use the money made its biggest grant of £20,000 to Charles’s charity Business in the Community, whose supporters include some of the biggest companies in Britain.

Another of its largest grants was of £5,000 to Gordonstoun, the Scottish public school, which Charles attended in 1962 and reportedly hated, and where a place now costs £30,000 a year.

The money was provided to support bursaries for Cornish children who otherwise would not be able to afford the fees.

A total of £1,000 went to his London-based Prince’s Foundation for Building Communities, which backs the prince’s controversial ideas about architecture and planning.

His title as Duke of Cornwall means he becomes owner of assets of anyone in the county who dies intestate Last year the foundation established a five-year partnership with the Ideal Home Show to showcase the value of sustainable design, which has been championed by Charles. The foundation believes that sustainably planned, built and maintained communities improve the quality of life of everyone who’s part of them, according to its chief executive Hank Dittmar, and ‘is empowering people to want better places to live in and helping them to achieve it’. RELATED ARTICLES Previous

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Next Duchess of Cornwall's make-up artist issues legal action... Who's Who of the most exclusive club in the world: Royals... Share this article Share Prince Charles’ title already lands him an £18m private annual income. The donations provided by deceased people in Cornwall have drawn particular criticism in the county. Last night there were calls for the inheritances to be channelled into the public purse as they are in the rest of England. Burt Biscoe, a councillor in Truro, told the Guardian Charles was ‘abusing the loyalty’ of Cornish people and the ‘privilege’ of receiving the intestate assets.

A grant of £5,000 was given to his old school Gordonstoun that he once called 'Colditz with kilts'

A grant of £1,000 was given to his Prince's Foundation for Building Community, which backs his planning ideas

He said: ‘Think what he could achieve if he gave that £450,000 to Cornwall every year … The area of giving should coincide with the area of taking.’

Charles has also been criticised for only distributing £100,000 – less than a quarter of the assets received from the deceased last year.

A Duchy of Cornwall spokesman said all of the money received would eventually be given to charity – minus the administration costs – but all the money from donations comes in at different points in the year and so is not allocated immediately.

Graham Smith, director of Republic, the campaign for an elected head of state, added: ‘Charles is sitting on those funds when they could be supporting the vital work of charities, many of whom are really struggling at the moment.’

The benevolent fund made 151 grants last year, including ones to the Soil Association, the organic farming movement which Charles supports and the Dorchester arts festival near his Poundbury housing development in Dorset.

A spokesman added that the Soil Association, Business in the Community and the Prince’s Foundation for Building Communities all carry out work in the south west.

A Duchy of Cornwall spokesman said: ‘The Prince of Wales personally decided that the money from bona vacantia should be donated to charity.