The Dark Secret Behind the Royal Family's Wealth | Empires of Dirt 

This isn't a 'dark secret' it's historical fact how they maintained their wealth. Colonialism at its finest, and the sad fact is that so many stolen historical items they have will likely never be returned to their countries of origin, at least not in our lifetime.

I didn't know colonialism was a secret.

7.6 million spent by Willy and Kate for one renovation on one property. They actually have 5 and the amounts would make one’s eye water. Yet, they were never demanded to pay back any of these amounts

Fun fact:most diamonds and jewels on the Royal crowns are from Africa and if you are close enough you can hear the slaughtered kids that died for the parents to mine it.

Greetings world from me in Manchester, England. Tip of the day, dont put anyone on a pedestal and remember that theres no such thing as very important people, there are just people. If anyone is important its the surgeon who saves your life in an operation.

Wait - why is this being called a secret? We call this history

The Prince Andrew dig was gold. 😂

I’ll use that next time I own an apology - “I express profound sorrow”

As a Jamaican, no secret ,just dark!

It would also be a good conversation to talk about how mankind went from chattel slavery into economic slavery. And why the monarchs face is on the money

It boggles the mind why the Queen and the royal family is so loved when they did all this. And THEY DON'T EVEN PAY TAXES! They're spitting in the face of their own people. Insane.

Intriguing, I always knew there was more to life and i have also been looking for a way to find not only protection but a way to be influential to the human society.

Exemption from inheritance tax sounds so wrong to me when commoners all need to pay for that…

Do one about France and their wonderful colonialism 😉

that prince andrew sweat joke was hilarious 🤣

I didn't watch this upload, i just commented. The Dark Secret = they stole it from someone else and never returned it. How did I know?

There’s a man in Scotland who plants trees every day and lives in the woods and will probably die in the woods very few would ever know he did this that’s where my respect is , there’s no honest rich person all living for today and not tomorrow

Its really important to understand the reason they seem like such nice old people is that its their job and their one and only survival strategy. They’re like the guy in the santa costume at the mall on Christmas. Except that the old man playing Santa is a billionaire doing the whole thing for a tax break and a government handout.

Enough to make you sweat. Unless you’re Prince Andrew. Very well made.

It's not a dark secret. You just have to read good ol normal history.

🤣🤣🤣 Vice News: The Dark Secret finally revealed Everyone else: that's not a secret

Historical facts are now known as dark secrets.

You guys should do a report on the Mali King Mansa Musa and how he amassed his wealth.

I find it simply hard to believe so many people think so highly of these grifters living off of them it's sick

Wow 40% inheritance tax?! Man, that’s ridiculous! Governments even suck money out of the dead 🤦‍♂️ Grandpa worked his whole life saving up for his grandchildren but the Gov’t takes $40,000 from the $100,000 🤦‍♂️

"Enough to make you sweat, unless you're prince Andrew"😆. Clever!

Oooh, a "dark secret"... which anyone who has even glanced at history already knows.

There's a hell of a lot misleading info here. The majority of those holdings (including Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court Palace) are owned by what's called the Crown Estate or 'The Crown'. The Crown and Crown Estate is not the monarchs' private wealth. The Crown Estate essentially doesn't actually belong to anyone (though you can say it 'belongs' to the monarch in name only and The Crown as the state). It is technically held in the monarchs name during their reign, which is then passed onto the next monarch. They can't manage it, sell it or profit of it - the revenues don't belong to the monarch. It's run by a separate independent body and the profits go to the UK treasury (ie tax), as well as some going to the Sovereign Grant (maintenance/operating costs of the properties etc). Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Hampton Court are all owned by The Crown as an entity, not privately by the reigning monarch. Kensington Palace and Hampton Court are run by a self-funding charity called Historic Royal Palaces and open to the public. Buckingham Palace is a working state building, to carry out the functions of the Head of State and is also the Head of State's official residence (ie they have a flat there). It is essentially like the White House, without the government operating there, just the Head of State instead. The monarchs' private asset property is the smaller Duchy of Lancaster, which a is a load of land and property holdings around the UK, worth about £650 million. They make an income on that and pay tax on it. There's also the Duchy of Cornwall which is passed on to the heir to the throne, which again they pay taxes on. Most of those property assets are just originally derived from centuries old land monarchy ownership in Great Britain - which you can argue about exploitation of Brits from centuries ago, but probably don't have much to do with the slave trade. I don't agree with the sealing of the royal wills, preventing the public from seeing what kind of assets have been passed on over centuries, but Crown assets like Kensington Palace or Hampton Court - which may at one time had some connection to profits from the slave trade - are essentially part of the British state/the nation and not privately owned by the monarch. I mean Hampton Court is just a historic building open to the public, the Royals don't have anything to do with it. It was built before the English/British monarchs (Elizabeth I and the Stuarts) who invested in the slave trade, though some of the later renovations under the Stuarts could have partially come from their slave holdings profits. Further, you do realise that the line of Stuarts - who created the Royal African Company - are a different family to the Windsors? They're very distantly related: ie multiple cousins removed. The Windsor's historic connection - to line of accession to the throne - came from a non-monarch Stuart who predated the two British monarchs' involved in the RAC (Charles II and James II). The RAC's assets were then spun off into a bunch of other private owners until the organisation became insolvent. I suspect you're very unlikely to see any private inherited wealth from Charles II and James II (Stuarts) to the replacement family Hanover, and now Windsor, line to the throne. You're also very confused if you think the British monarch is going to personally address an idea of 'reparations' for colonialism. The British Head of State is not allowed to be political. It's completely outside their remit or choice. If there ever were such a thing it would come from the UK government. Lastly, 'more and more former colonies' are NOT 'saying they want out of the Commonwealth'. It's the opposite, more countries are wanting to join, recently Gabon and Togo this year. You are confusing Commonwealth Realm status with The Commonwealth. Commonwealth Realms are certain specific independent sovereign countries - within the Commonwealth - that still have the British monarch as their titular Head of State. The ones that want to stop being Commonwealth Realms don't want to leave the Commonwealth, they simply want to move forward and become republics. Which is completely normal. What's surprising is they've chosen to stay Commonwealth Realms for so long. This is really bad journalism. Misleading and often devoid of genuine context and facts. And doesn't really get to a realistic idea as to how you would deal with the concept of 'reparations'. Which would be hugely complex, hard to actually quantify in any kind of factual meaningful audit to today, especially when it actually involves a lot more than one or two different royal families, from several centuries ago, who don't exist anymore. In fact, I suspect the deeper you actually try to properly financially audit something like slavery from 2-3 centuries ago, or colonialism, the harder it's going to reach any realistic resolution today. I think there are ways to do certain 'reparations' by richer nations, but this aint it.

It is not a surprise to anyone from Africa or the Caribbean who have actually been taught ALL of their history-- the good, the bad, the ugly, the devastatingly painful parts!!!!!!!!!!

I find it quite telling that when calculating the cost of the debt owed to other countries and their people Canada's, New Zealand's and Australia's Indigenous People were left out. There is no financial restitution that will account for genocide, but the value of the land stolen would help lift Aboriginal communities out of the traumatic and impoverished conditions they are now forced to live in. This is true for all people and countries subjugated by all-powerful colonizing countries historic and modern.

The King: "ALOT of people had to die"..with an alligator smile.

It is absolutely mind boggling to see "common folk" in the streets this day BEGGING for a decent wage to live, to feed their kids, to not dissolve into the abyss of poverty...Where they splendor and relish "by right". The injustice is just crazy. There is MORE THAN ENOUGH for everybody in this world. This is happening in front of our eyes. Eat the rich, your children will thank you for it and at least there will be food on their tables.... I hope. (I'm Belgian btw)

definitely not a secret, but I respect that you guys covered this

They might even own more-and let’s not forget all the money they already spend!With all respect,this isn’t of this time anymore-it’s like a medieval mafia family still running their games🤷🏻

Always always always FOLLOW THE MONEY Find out who you are not allowed to criticize and you find out whos in charge

People were out there cueing for 24 hours to see her coffin, but are probably struggling to pay their energy bills, or have been to a food bank in the past 12 months lol…

It kinda makes my stomach hurt knowing there are people who can do all this type of stuff and completely get away with it. Also just so you know the royal family can't even be arrested or prosecuted by "civil and criminal proceedings".

The Pyramids of Giza still remains in Egypt because it is too huge to display inside the British Museum.

The fact she is hailed as hero is mind boggling

How much wealth the royal family’s got I don’t even think that can be measured by number

This is no dark secret. Its an open truth.

On the question of reparation - "Any Sum of money that is payable, would NOT be credible, and, any sum that would be credible could NOT be payable" ~ Shashi Tharoor - on paying debts to its former colonies.

Ol’ Chucky should have waited until his Mum was buried and then announced he was not taking the throne. He missed a huge opportunity to help set things right.

Well done!!!!

*Yet, we still bow and praise these "Royal" as if they did something to greaten our lives.*

Now do one about saxons, Norman's, roman slave trade

I’m from the states. I don’t understand the weird amount of love and affection British ppl have for the royal family. Feels very cultish.

5:51 that dig at Andrew loool

These episodes should be much longer

Here we go, the victims will come out the woodwork... you know, the ones that currently live a privileged life and went through none of the events in the video. Looking forward to the videos on all the other countries.

I have no money, no job or houses in the UK. Whats the point of the Royal Family if people are living in these conditions.

I am glad someone is talking about this truth

Wow, a quarter of all the world's land. I knew the British were established all over the world but I didn't realize they held that much land at one time.

Not a secret. It wasn't so much "people of colour" , but people who were far less advanced at the time and also participated in the terrible things humans did in the past. Not race, just geography, society and greed. Some countries have actually rejoined the commonwealth. Countries looking to join the commonwealth include South Sudan, Suriname, Burundi and the as yet unrecognized Somaliland. Hoping someone feels ashamed for the past is pretty petty. It's a shame Vice can't do balanced reporting. DW Africa an extremely balanced report on The Queen. Vice should be a news outlet to help people make up their minds. Balanced reviews. Aren't the more "controversial" views and untold stories edgy than this one sided cherry picked rant.

I mourned the queen of Englands passing with as much sadness as she would have mourned mine.

Bit rich for a Singaporean educated at Cambridge and London to criticize the British Empire, who turned a small island of 1,000 into one of the greatest ports in Asia

Ask the Irish if they felt they were saved from savage treatment by the British monarchy because of their white skin. For those of you not familiar with it, look up the terms "ginger pejorative". You can skip the people who were clueless in their youth, and think it comes from a TV series considering the history goes back well into the 1800s at the very least. There might be a reason that a "ginger" who married a mixed race girl (and the term his grandmother the queen used for her) might have decided to leave their royal prerogatives and immigrate to Canada. Also look up the chanting by soccer fans in Dublin after the Queen's death. " L1$$ie in a box" does not indicate a particular fondness for the royal family. The British refused to take any land out of sheep or wheat production during the Irish potato famine, starving 1 million to death and causing another 1 million to emigrate (or to be transported as not being sufficiently grateful to the British for this). That was a quarter of the population. In fact Charles Dickens comments about letting the poor die was in part based on the treatment of the Irish, although I doubt a poor Englishman starving to death in London would have appreciated the fine points on how they were treated differently. Of course Ireland was not the only country singled out for this kind of honor by the British monarchy. Just the one with the lightest skin color.

this topic merits a deep dive... a full-length exposition.

Do one on the Qing dynasty next!

Oh damn! Cathy “so you’re saying” Newman still a thing?? That’s dope haha

The axe forgets, but the tree remembers

Most Brits are clueless about their history - all they learn about is the two world wars and the industrial revolution. As an Irish person that lives abroad and have many Brtis in our 'ex-pat' social circle I know this from experience. Don't get me wrong, they are among my best friends in the world but when you try telling them about their countries treatment and behaviour towards the Irish, Indians, Africans, Palestine, Caribbean, Cypriots etc etc etc they don't want to know. 'Get over it' and 'nothing to do with me' is the usual responses. That is why it will never change.

One million Irish people died from starvation because Ireland was under the British Empire and the land was farmed by British Lord's. When the potato crop rotted which many Irish people had only, they died in starvation. My great grandfather, father, told he remembers when he saw a body of a man dead at the said of the road with grass in his mouth.

I love these episodes. I always learn so much, please do one on the US 😭

This is why it blew my mind how many people were mourning the queens death. Why do so many people still love them?

Good job. I'm glad someone is talking about this

If they can't even say sorry for their horrific sins, I doubt if they are human, if not evils.

its not really a dark secret when we're taught this at school...

It’s no secret that a monarchy is a criminal racket. It’s just very well propagandized

Prince Harry be like: I can’t wait to see how this turns out. 👓🍿

They also were the first to stop slavery despite push back from the rest of the world.

The commonwealth is a voluntary association, if countries wish to leave they can. I think you confused removal of the british crown as their head of state with the commonwealth. Countries that were never part of the british empire have signed up to be part of it such as Mozambique and rwanda.

The dirty secret of humanity is that at the root of all human culture is powerful control of resources, with the use of whatever weapons available. Even slavery and abuse is present in every culture, amplified by travel, trade, population growth and declining resources. What separates the UK is how successful they were, but know that many other cultures would have done the same if given the opportunity. Those peaceful cultures who did not, were either severely isolated or did not survive. All surviving cultures did so on the backs of enemies from years past, so how far back do you go?

Not just people of colour. Ireland, Scotland, Wales.

anyone know what the piece of classical music at the start of this is called? cheers!

This video was good, but not even nearly long enough

Corruption thrives in darkness.

You want outrage? How about the fact that their annual Grant is increased above inflation levels every year. Any employee out there who can say the same?

can you cover more pls?

Wait... This was a secret? Well, shout out to my ancestors for knowing the secret first ...

Makes me feel sick physically ill that anyone could be so base and detached and to believe that anyone is superior to anyone else. Bullies. Barf

Amazing 🤩🤩

It wasn’t just “people of colour” - Irish and other cultures were nearly destroyed by “royal” ancestors.

Abolish the monarchy 🔥🔥

This is Stockholm Syndrome at it's finest. Please keep educating us. 💛

As a Greek person , i might as well ask the Turks for reperations as well according to your logic Vice.

Fascinating

Totally tarnishes this family’s spotless legacy

a lot more pressing issues right now in the world

This doesn't surprise me because throughout history regardless if it was the monarchy or politicians, if you had wealth or power who are more than likely to not face poverty. The one thing I never understand when it came to the queen let alone any monarchy in Europe how can the people suffer from poverty when the world family does nothing but sit on their throne with a piece of tin foil on their head as money feels their pockets from the people. Do they even donate to the poor?

I asked my old MP if MP's are above the Law. My old MP said "No, but the Queen is!" No wonder our Governments do not work. Their oath is to the Crown 👑 and not us!

Wow I had no idea one of the LARGEST EMPIRES EVER stole from the rest of the world

Do a video on how litteraly all the United States wealth and power stems from slavery on an industrial scale, and how the British Empire ended slavery worldwide and paid 40% of it's wealth out in reparations. Not to mention the Brits who died fighting against it.

WHAT IS THE SONG IN RHE BEGINNING

I wonder what the UK would look like now if they never took all the wealth and resources though colonization. Do they really believe their development is only due to their hard work?

As an Irish person were literally told from school age how evil the British empire was(is)

Now royal family of Denmark, Malaysia Thailand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Spain etc Why just the Brits?? For views ?? Queen Elizabeth II was the most travelled head of state

Finally a news outlet brave enough to stand up to this awful outdated system. Abolish the monarchy!

Impressive, very nice.

Excellent topic covered by vice