King Charles has demonstrated that he is fully back in charge after his cancer treatment by taking the reins of a business which controls his Balmoral estate.
The monarch has been named as the person running the royal retreat in the Highlands as well as plush flats in Edinburgh — the first time a member of the Royal Family has formally taken this role.
The new position at a company was decided just as he began his return to public life carrying out engagements following treatment.
In an unusual move, the King has been named as a person of significant control of Canup Ltd in documents filed at Companies House. A PSC01 form shows ‘His Gracious Majesty King Charles III’ was notified as a ‘person of significant control’.
The paperwork says the position had become ‘registrable’ on March 31 last year, but was not made public until now.
Canup Ltd owns the King’s lands at Balmoral and Delnadamph in the Scottish Highlands, but also owns two Edinburgh flats said to be worth a combined total of up to £1.8million.
Although it is known the company manages the royal properties, no royal has previously been publicly linked with it. The paperwork previously stated: ‘The company knows or has reasonable cause to believe that there is no registrable person or registrable relevant legal entity in relation to the company.’
The three directors are Sir Michael Steven, Keeper of the Privy Purse — effectively the royals’ chief financial officer — the Duke of Buccleuch, and Scots businessman Sir Brian Ivory.
This week, the King has been in Edinburgh, where Queen Camilla and the Duke of Edinburgh became members of the Order of the Thistle during a service celebrating Scotland’s greatest order of chivalry.
The Queen and Prince Edward were appointed Royal Knights of the Order by the King and in a private ceremony, also attended by fellow member Prince William, were formally installed during the service at St Giles’ Cathedral.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has a confession: he didn’t take advantage of the Swinging Sixties.
‘I was a rather strait-laced teenager,’ says Williams, 74.
‘I wasn’t in any hurry to have a love life. I’d probably have a word to say to my younger self about that — not ‘play the field’, but relax a bit and be grateful for the friendships offered.’
At 82, Michael of Kent is still a party Prince…
Prince Michael of Kent, who celebrated his 82nd birthday yesterday, is determined to keep partying.
The beloved first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth was spotted being given a helping hand by a doorman as he left Oswald’s, Robin Birley’s private members’ club in Mayfair.
Like his wife, Marie-Christine, 79, Prince Michael uses a walking stick these days, but that has not deterred him from maintaining a lively social life.
It has been a traumatic year for the couple, with their son-in-law, Thomas Kingston, dying tragically in February.
Handsome and popular, the financier, 45, was married to their daughter, Lady Gabriella Windsor.
The Royal Family has rallied around her and she attended the opening day of Royal Ascot, where she was, touchingly, invited by King Charles to join the traditional procession from Windsor Castle to the Berkshire racecourse, riding in a landau with Princess Anne and Peter Phillips.
Bea’s dinner date with Wimbledon royalty Sharapova
Two decades after she became a Wimbledon champion, Maria Sharapova is still a towering presence.
The Russian-born former tennis star, 37, an imposing 6ft 2in, celebrated the 20th anniversary of her Wimbledon title with a dinner attended by her friend Princess Beatrice, 35, who is 5ft 4in.
They were joined at The Twenty Two restaurant in Mayfair by Bea’s husband, the property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, and Sharapova’s fiance, Alexander Gilkes, a friend of Prince Harry.
Sharapova has a son with art dealer Gilkes, with whom she lives in California.
The Old Etonian was previously married to Meghan Markle’s close pal Misha Nonoo for four years
Novelist Amanda Craig is sick of down-in-the-mouth modern literature.
‘Those of us who write literary fiction are wearily familiar with being dismissed by critics as ‘lightweight’ for not leaving readers with the feeling that it is time to slit their wrists,’ she says.
‘Meanwhile, the public searches in vain for something cheerful on television or in bookshops and prefers vintage comedies such as Dad’s Army and Yes Minister, because contemporary offerings are so dismal.’
London’s top auctioneer is to gain a new title.
Harry Dalmeny, chairman of Sotheby’s, is to become the Earl of Rosebery after his father, Neil, died at home this week aged 95.
It means that Harry’s second wife, Harriet Clapham, an Old Masters adviser 22 years his junior, whom he married in 2022, is to become the Countess of Rosebery.
Harriet’s mother is Mari Kirkwood, who was crowned Miss Scotland in 1975. Her picture appeared on cans of Tennent’s beer during the 1980s as one of their
‘Lager Lovelies’ and she became a hostess on Jimmy Tarbuck’s ITV game show Winner Takes All.
Harry, 56, who has five children with former wife Caroline Daglish, will also inherit the magnificent Dalmeny House near Edinburgh.
Bojo’s bro Max pulped by Mongolian wrestler!
Boris Johnson has faced political blows, but his half-brother, Max, suffered even more painful ones while making a travel film in China with their father, Stanley.
‘A very talented Mongolian wrestler beat me up fairly comprehensively,’ Max tells me at the premiere of In The Footsteps Of Marco Polo at the Curzon Mayfair cinema in London.
‘I broke two fingers and had to have surgery.’
The financier, 39, who was joined by his wife, Brazilian mental health campaigner Gabriela Maia, adds: ‘Stanley learned boxing at Oxford, so I thought, when I went into this wrestling scene, that his advice would be transferable.
‘Evidently, it wasn’t. The floor was wiped with me. But that’s showbusiness, we suffer for our art.’