Buckingham Palace better get ready for King William. After his father King Charles took the throne in 2022 following Queen Elizabeth’s death, Prince William inherited his father’s former estate, the Duchy of Cornwall—a $1 billion estate spanning across 20 counties in England and Wales—that William has been working hard to oversee.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the Duchy of Cornwall’s secretary, Will Bax, described William—who visits the region once every four to six weeks—as “pretty demanding” to work with” but in a “great” and “ambitious” way. “He’s easy to follow because he’s got great conviction and personality, and he really wears his heart on his sleeve in terms of social interest and his desire to have a positive impact in the world,” Bax said.
The estate’s director Ben Murphy also told the publication that William has a “healthy impatience, as his father did,” which “puts the wind in our sails.” The Duchy of Cornwall, established by King Edward III, in 1337, spans across 130,000 acres of land, farms, houses, and more assets. In exchange for providing funds to the heir to the throne, William assists the Duchy of Cornwall in improving life for its residents. “I see the Duchy as an extension of the work we do with the Royal Foundation,” William told The Telegraph.
He continued, “I see it as a branch of my philanthropy. There’s so much good we can do in the rural world. I see it [the Duchy] as another arm to the work that I want to do, which is being a positive force for good.” Bax also called William, who has addressed issues in the Duchy like homelessness and the mental health of farmers, “a man on a mission.” Bax continued, “He’s asking us to change and evolve in a way to deliver positive impact at scale and at pace.”
“I’m trying to make sure I’m prioritizing stuff that’s going to make people’s lives, living in those areas, better. This is what we’re going to do to make people’s lives in Cornwall better,” William told The Telegraph. “That, I feel as Duke of Cornwall, is something I should be doing. It’s about responsibility, it’s about leadership and doing what’s right on the social issues of our time.”
News of William’s work with the Duchy of Cornwall comes a month after The Daily Beast reported in April 2025 that one of William’s first orders of business as king is to strip his brother Prince Harry and Harry’s wife Meghan Markle of their HRH titles now that they’ve left the royal family.
“William has been given a great deal of influence on all areas of royal policy, but that cuts both ways and he respects his father’s rank. Charles has a softly-softly attitude to Harry and Meghan, and so that’s the policy for now, but the gloves will be off when he inherits the throne. If they started using the HRH titles on a regular basis, he would take them away for good,” a source told the outlet.
Another insider added, “It’s no secret William wants Harry more harshly dealt with. He thinks he has betrayed the family from top to bottom, which is the ultimate Windsor crime. It wouldn’t take much to provoke him to flex his muscles when he is king.”
The source explained that Charles, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2024, has a different approach to Harry and Meghan that William wants to change when he ascends to the throne. “Charles isn’t going to open a new front in the civil war on the basis of one Instagram post, and it’s not as if they are calling themselves HRH. I think everyone is pretty clear, at this stage, what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s position in the family is,” the insider said.