# Prince Charles And His Medals **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 30, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628 "2004-07-30T18:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/41 "2004-08-01T21:50:56Z")
I totaly agree **Coldfire**. That’s exactly why I support NZ retaining the Queen as head of state. If we didn’t have her we would have to have a president and who needs more bloody politicians. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/42 "2004-08-01T22:04:19Z")
Well if the discussion has moved on from Charles and his medals (which is just a sick joke and an insult to those who have earned their medals), it’s not having a King or a Queen that gets up my nose - it’s the hundreds of hangers - on (minor princes etc etc.)who live off the fat of the land and contribute nothing except column inches in the tabloids. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/43 "2004-08-01T23:09:34Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > (Actually, I prefer the Norwegian model. I used to think the Royals should be put up against the wall, but now I think hey, a lot of British people adore them, they’re a tradition, they’re fairly unique. They just don’t have to be as astonishingly rich and feted as they are. Or if they’re allowed to retain their money and lands, they at least should be paying tax, and not drawing a penny from the taxpayer. I could live with a non-constitutional “cycling monarchy”.) As far as I can determine, around the time George III took the throne, he surrendered the revenues from the royal family’s personal property to the use of the civil government. This amount far outstrips the amount the government pays for the upkeep of the royal family. From [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_list): > [@](#): > > The civil list is effectively the royals’ salary. In 2002, the civil list was £8,153,000 (GBP). > > The civil list is funded in accordance with a 1760 settlement in which the monarch hands over the income from the Crown estates (£170,800,000 in 2003). ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2004, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/44 "2004-08-01T23:35:22Z")
I can’t find a cite, but I read within the last couple of years that, in documents only just revealed, an early 20thC monarch wrote to the Chancellor saying that the royals’ finances were on their last legs, and if they continued to have to pay tax, they would have to get rid of, amongst other things, the royal polo ponies. It was at this point they ceased to pay income tax. [However](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_royal_family): > [@](#): > > The Queen agreed to pay taxes on income and capital gains from 1993, at the same time it was announced that only the Queen, Prince Philip, and the Queen Mother would receive civil list payments in the future. > > However, civil list payments to the other royals were not abolished. Instead payments to them continued and the Queen pays an equivalent sum back to the Treasury. This was thought to be a technical arrangement to cover administrative and legal difficulties of stopping the payments. But the Queen saves about £536,000 a year in income tax by setting off the money she pays back to the Treasury against her own tax bill. That said, things like rental income from the [Duchy of Cornwall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Cornwall) (Prince Charles’s cash cow: 571 km² of land) are not subject to tax. Charles paid tax on this voluntarily, but reduced the proportion of tax he paid when he got married to Diana. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/45 "2004-08-02T02:29:10Z")
> [@UncleBill](#): > > The Royal Webmaster needs to be informed of this oversite No , they just need to clarify it from that same link you provided. > [@](#): > > In 1971 he spent six months at the Royal Air Force College at Cranwell learning to **fly jet aircraft** and obtaining his RAF wings. The Royal Navy operated full size aircraft carriers up until the late 70’s , when the Royal navy transitioned to the through deck cruiser and assault carriers(helo), then the F-4 phantoms in Naval service , were transfered over to the RAF. Which may explain why he flew the phantom, but was never in an operational squadron, other than the flutter wings. Declan ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/46 "2004-08-02T14:20:12Z")
> [@Rayne Man](#): > > I have just seen that waste of space Prince Charles on the TV in full military uniform wearing a whole chestful of medals. Where on earth did he earn these gongs? What major battles or campaigns has he taken part in?. I think the answer is none. To add insult to injury he was being presented to members of the Airborne Division , including veterans of WW2 . They had to earn their medals the hard way not like this pillock Charles who has never done a honest day’s work in his life and never been under fire. Bollocks. When in full military uniform, Prince Charles wears precisely five military medals. All the order stars and his neck badge are civilian decorations. His handful of military medals are service medals of the sort that are given to all members of the armed services. No big deal, but then you’re the only person who wants to claim that they are. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/47 "2004-08-02T14:56:08Z")
> [@APB](#): > > When in full military uniform, Prince Charles wears precisely five military medals. All the order stars and his neck badge are civilian decorations. Right. He could just as well wear them in civilian full-formal dress. But somehow people find it hard to understand that there exist such things as decorations that, for all their high-falutin’ pomp, are not awards of merit, but mere ceremonial “honors”, just the national-level equivalent of getting the “keys to the city”, having next Saturday proclaimed Joe Blow Day in the county your Tour is visiting, or my own commission as a Kentucky Colonel, which in no way demeans anyone wearing the “full birds” in that state’s National Guard or the US Army. “Insulting” to Veterans would be if Chuck were to wear a Victoria Cross, for instance. And they would _know_ it when they saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/48 "2004-08-02T17:58:56Z")
> [@nonpolar](#): > > Royals in UK are the main reason people go there for vacation,without them nobody would go to UK(awfull food,rain,everything is expensive,etc)so let them royal clowns live. 😉 > There are much better places to go for vacation in mainland Europe (france ,spain, > italy,grece etc). Ridiculous! How many dopers have been to London and seen anything more of the royals than the buildings they inhabit? Keep in mind that those buildings are centuries old and bear the marks of history. They are worth seeing whether there are any royals living in them or not. I’ve never seen a royal, nor ever hope to, but of all the places in the world I’ve seen, England is the single foreign destination I’d return to. I just don’t have the resources these days to do it. Maybe if I win the Lotto. 😉 As for Charles, I think he fairly defines the term “stuffed shirt,” except that in his case, with all the medals and honors, most of the stuffing is on the outside. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2004, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/49 "2004-08-02T23:10:54Z")
As far as I’m concerned, the Royals who actually do spend most of their time doing PR and charity work, and live their life under a microscope of a power beyond the comprehension of any entertainment celebrity, are entitled to everything they get and own. Let’s see…if you wanted to put me in the Prince Of Wales’ shoes and make me put up with that lifestyle, you’d have to give me the umpteen titles that he has plus all the assets. ---
**Author:** ![nonpolar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3da27b/32.png) [@nonpolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonpolar)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/50 "2004-08-04T04:41:29Z")
One of the royals I believe husband of queen Elisabeth is one funny and sometimes not politically correct guy(his jokes are hillarious). All those medalls Prince of Whales has are just like some VIP gets honorary professoship of sciences at university. ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628/51 "2004-08-04T05:27:43Z")
Far as I’m aware, the Civil List doesn’t exist anymore. It was exchanged for the Consolidated Fund quite some time ago. The difference between the civil list and the consolidated fund is that the civil list was an _ **entitlement** _ which the queen had. Whereas the consolidated fund is an _ **allowance** _ given to the queen by the Treasury. Quite an important difference because it means that the money the queen receives is a privilege rather than a right. And it gives Parliament the right to adjust it every year (either up or down) when the Consolidated Fund Act comes up for annual renewal. I think the Royal Office put up quite a fight when the Consolidated Fund Act first appeared but in the end they were forced to accept it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-charles-and-his-medals/257628.md?page=2)