Prince Edward's surprising agreement surfaces after Andrew eviction

The royal family has been under intense scrutiny owing to the scandals trailing Andrew and the privileges he enjoyed despite the harrowing allegations against him.

Even though King Charles has ousted his disgraced brother, the monarch’s loyal and ‘scandal–free’ brother Edward is also being held under a magnifying glass.

In a fresh report released by The Times, details of Prince Edward’s 51-acre Bagshot Park agreement have been released raising eyebrows over how the royal family operates.

Just weeks prior, it was revealed that Andrew had not paid rent for two decades on the massive 30-room Windsor property, Royal Lodge. He had merely paid peppercorn rent, which is a negligible amount paid in order to keep a legal agreement binding.

Prince Edward and his wife Duchess Sophie moved to Bagshot property in 1999 after their wedding. Their two children, Lady Louise and James were also born there

The agreement for the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also showed that they have been paying peppercorn amount for the property.

Edward initially leased the property for 50 years for £5,000 a year in March 1998 and the sum went to £90,000 a year, per the National Audit Office. He had also paid £1.36 million for renovations and the Crown Estate covered the rest of the ­£3 million.

There are no conditions set on the further sale of the lease, except that he could profit from its sale. Another point to note is that Edward's children cannot inherit the lease while Andrew's agreement allowed Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie to inherit.

Questions have been raised about whether it is justified to hold the privilege even though he and his wife are full working royals and hold a prominent position with the King and carrying out diplomatic engagements.

Rachel Avery, Hello!’s Home Editor explained that this is a commonplace for royals to either pay full rent or just the upkeep of the property as that is a massive sum to spend.