Digital Desk: If the public had access to Queen Elizabeth II's
will, it would offer unique insights into the late monarch's wealth, but in
contrast to the wills of ordinary British residents, it will remain sealed and
locked in a safe for at least 90 years.
The custom of sealing the wills of deceased royal’s dates back
to 1910 and the little-known Prince Francis of Teck, whose will is one of more
than 30 that are stored in a safe under the supervision of a judge in an
undisclosed location in London.
The executor of a senior royal's will typically requests that
the will be sealed from the head of the London High Court's Family Division
once the senior royal passes away. Judges who have held that post in the past
have all concurred.
Those specifics weren't made public until after the passing of
the queen's husband, Prince Philip, in April 2021, when judge Andrew McFarlane
was tasked with handling the request to have his will sealed.
The judge decided that the will should be sealed, but he also
chose to make his decision public so that everyone would know what was
happening and why.
He said that in order for the monarch to carry out his or her
constitutional duties, "the degree of notoriety that publishing would
certainly attract would be exceedingly wide and entirely antithetical to the
goal of protecting the dignity of the Sovereign."
The judge disclosed the location of the safe containing the
royal wills and that he was in charge of it as the current president of the
Family Division despite not knowing what was within the sealed documents.
When the late queen's will is placed in the safe with her late
husband, it will be next to the wills of Princess Margaret and her mother,
Elizabeth, who both passed away in 2002.
Robert Brown, who claimed to be the princess's illegitimate son
and wanted to view Margaret's will in order to support his claim, filed a
judicial challenge against it in 2007. His belief was rejected by the courts as
"irrational," and he was denied admittance.
The earliest will in the safe belongs to Prince Francis of Teck, who passed away in 1910 at the age of 40. He was the younger brother of Queen Mary, the late queen's grandmother and the wife of King George V.
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