Queen Mary’s “Modest” Estate

Queen Mary died in 1953 and when the amount of her estate was made known, everyone was shocked to find out that she left a modest  £406,407. People thought she was worth millions, however, it was already known that she had given away many of her valuable pieces to members of the royal family during her lifetime.

 Less taxes and death duties, her net estate was valued at  £379,864, but the queen's bequests had been kept in private. Newspapers and speculators initially estimated the queen's wealth between  £3 million and £4 million. They based this figure on the assumption that she inherited a huge chunk of King George V's personal fortune. At the accession of King George V, she also received £70,000 for the rest of her life, money which she used to bail out the Duchess of Kent (her daughter in law), who was having a difficult time making ends meet following the death of her husband the Duke of Kent and the demise of his Civil List payments.

While many thought that the former King Edward VIII would receive a substantial portion of her estate, the truth it he was virtually cut from his inheritance and he received only three small boxes and a pair of candlesticks, prompting him to write his wife, the Duchess of Windsor: “What a smug stinking lot my relations are and you’ve never seen such a seedy worn out bunch of old hags most of them have become.”

It was believed, however, that she left a sum to the Duchess of Kent. She was very much attached to her granddaughter Princess Alexandra, and she would be heard saying she would see to it that her coming out would be one owrthy of her rank and beauty.

It is said that Queen Mary had initiated the need for the royal family to make sound financial investments in order to build a personal fortune. Her childhood was marred by financial difficulties and debts that hounded her parents and from these experiences the queen knew the importance of building great wealth rather than simply having just enough to live by. George III agreed to turn over the management and the income of the vast Crown Estate to the management of the Crown Lands to the Government and the surplus revenues were remitted to the Treasury from then on. In return, Parliament appropriated the King and his household with a fixed annual payment, later known as the Civil List. The result was that several generations of royals had been at the mercy of Parliament for funding.

While the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall provide private income to the sovereign and the Duke of Cornwall, they are not personal properties, thus, their assets cannot be disposed. When republican sentiments went high at the height of World War I and following the toppling of many royal houses across Europe, Queen Mary suggested that the British Royal Family should embark on an investment program that would build their own independent wealth. Since then, a separate investment plan has been established as a source of private fortune, one that Queen Elizabeth II continues to follow to this day.

Aside from financial investments, Queen Mary was shrewd enough to invest her money on priceless jewels, many of which she acquired from her impoverished relatives, who were cashing out their royal gems. She chose to acquire jewelry that has strong connection to royalty. For example, she acquired the precious Vladimir Tiara from Princess Nicholas of Greece for £28,000. She spent huge sums of money acquiring the jewels from the estate of Dowager Empress Marie of Russia and paid three times the market value of the Cambridge Emeralds from Lady Kilmorey, who was the mistress of her late brother Prince Francis.  

She also collected objets d'art, which significantly expanded the Royal Collection, which included more than 200 miniatures from the House of Hanover,  Georgian silver trays and tableware, Louis XVI gold-mounted agate candlesticks, and a Louis XV clock. At the height World War II, all these treasures, then already valued at £250,000, were buried in a London cellar.

On many occasions, whenever she would visit a country house and she saw an object worthy of being added to the Royal Collection, she would express to hosts that she admired something they had in their possession, expecting that she would go home with the object with her—which most of the time she would. Aside from acquiring jewelry pieces and works of art, Queen Mary also commissioned many jewelry. Many of the tiaras presently owned by Queen  Elizabeth II, like the Lover’s Knot Tiara, the Diamond Bandeau Tiara, Girls of Britain Tiara, Delhi Durbar Tiara, and the Fringe Tiara were all commissioned by Queen Mary. She either gave them to her granddaughter either as a gift when she was still alive, or a part of her estate which she passed on to her.