The release of the fifth series of The Crown on Netflix has provoked intense debate. It covers some of the most controversial moments from the 1990s, especially the tumultuous relationship between Charles and Diana. With Charles recently being named King, the show is certain to be an unwanted distraction, but it also leads us to wonder whether the Windsors of the UK are the richest royal family in the world.
Fictional Royal Families
Before we look at the wealth of real-life Royals, which fictional monarchs have immense riches under their control? Of course, movies and TV shows rarely mention actual figures in this respect, but we can guess at their wealth thanks to the luxury we see on the screen and the power that they wield.
One current series, House of the Dragon, gives us a closer look at the Targaryen family from Game of Thrones, where we saw that Daenerys Targaryen was poor as a youth before the family’s wealth grew upon her marriage to Drogo. This Targaryen family tree lets us trace back to her ancestors and shows us how it all links together. We can also see who has sat on the Iron Throne, such as Viserys I Targaryen and Aegon IV Targaryen. The new series confirms their previous wealth and power, making them a serious contender as the richest royal family in fiction.
The Saudi Arabian Royal Family
The House of Saud is a huge royal family with about 15,000 members, although it’s thought that only a couple of thousand of them control most of the wealth and power. This family’s position as the country’s ruling family goes back to the 18th century when Muhammad bin Saud formed what has been called the First Saudi state. The family as a whole is thought to have a total of $1.4 trillion in wealth under their control.
A vast part of this fortune comes from the Saudi Aramco oil company, which is state-owned and owns some of the world’s most extensive reserves of fossil fuel. King Salman is the current ruling monarch in this family and is thought to be its richest member, with some sources suggesting that King Salman has a personal fortune of $18 billion, making him the world’s richest royal.
The British Royal Family
While The Crown shows us the immense power and wealth of the House of Windsor, most lists put them in fifth place, behind the Saudi Arabia royals as well as those from Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. This family has been ruling the UK since the start of the 20th century and is a branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha dynasty that changed its surname to Windsor shortly after taking the throne.
Estimates of their current wealth go from $28 billion up to $88 billion, with the ruling monarch the wealthiest member. With King Charles III taking over in 2022, his wealth has multiplied, although his management of the Duchy of Cornwall estate had already seen it grow to a value of $1.4 billion under his control.
The wealth that we see on display in the new series of The Crown is real and based on the House of Windsor’s financial power, but even this isn’t enough to make them the richest royal family on the planet.