Britain’s Prince Charles’ "black spider" letters will be published today (13.05.15).
The Prince of Wales had been engaged in a 10-year legal battle with The Guardian newspaper journalist Rob Evans about the secret memos, which were exchanged between the 66-year-old prince and government ministers between September 2004 and March 2005, but a high court ruling means they will be made available today.
The journalist asked to see the documents by using a Freedom of Information request a decade ago, although the Supreme Court judges only approved the letters’ publication in March.
Some edits have been made to the letters following the Upper Tribunal’s ruling it "has accepted Mr Evans’s submission that what is described in the decision as ‘the open material’ is to be supplied to other parties without restriction on their ability to publish that material".
The tribunal’s decision insisted the material – which is believed to hold Charles’ "most deeply held personal views and beliefs" – could be published as long as changes were made to protect personal data of people other than the future monarch.
The documents – which are expected to be published at 15:00 BST – are known as the "black spider" memos due to the prince’s scrawling handwriting and excessive use of exclamation marks and underlining.
However sources close to the prince claim the 27 letters – of which fewer than 10 were written by Charles – contain "no bombshells" and are "much more boring than people think they are".
Prince Charles’ ‘black spider’ letters due to be released
