Crown Estate pays Mountbatten-Windsor £302,000 for early Royal Lodge surrender

High Court rules warrants used to raid former prince’s home were unlawful

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been granted £302,000 in compensation after the lease on his former Royal Lodge home in Windsor was officially surrendered, a Crown Estate spokesperson confirmed. The spokesperson said the former prince paid £1.8m in repair and restoration costs during the lease, and that the property was returned more than 50 years before the lease’s planned end. Compensation was triggered because the surrender took place within the lease’s first 25 years, in keeping with its terms.

“The lease for Royal Lodge has ended and our focus now is firmly on its future use and the opportunities to generate additional financial value for the nation from its early return,” the Crown Estate spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that the property will be marketed by two nationally recognised agents for its proposed future use.

The former Duke of York moved out of the Windsor mansion this year as the US Department of Justice released files related to Epstein. He was forced to move into Marsh Farm on the King’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk, amid public outcry about the rent he had paid on the Royal Lodge.

In June, a National Audit Office investigation revealed that the late Queen’s second son received an unknown amount of private income from subletting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate while paying a peppercorn rent — a small, symbolic payment — for more than two decades.

On Thursday, Mountbatten-Windsor won his legal challenge against Thames Valley police over the search warrants used to raid his home after his arrest. The former prince brought a judicial review of the legality of the force’s actions and those of the central criminal court, which granted the warrants.

Mr Justice Hilliard, sitting at the High Court in central London, said Thames Valley police (TVP) had conceded it obtained the search powers under the wrong statutory provision and ruled the warrants were unlawful. According to The Guardian, the episode is embarrassing for TVP, though police believe it will not affect the success of the investigation.

The arrest followed information that emerged from the Epstein files. It was alleged that when Mountbatten-Windsor was the UK’s trade envoy he shared sensitive information with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender. Police began searching the former Duke of York’s residence on the Sandringham estate and his former Windsor home, Royal Lodge, on the same day as his arrest. Documentary material and electronic devices were seized.

Late last year, King Charles stripped his brother of his right to be a prince and of his dukedom over his association with Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor receives an annual stipend from the King’s private funds, the amount of which has not been disclosed, but a palace source told reporters it had been made clear the funds should not be used to fund the judicial review.