Letters from Prince Charles to government ministers were finally published after a 10-year legal battle to keep them from public view, opening debate on whether the Prince overreached into political affairs.
Britain's former Attorney-General had argued that the correspondence could be "seriously damaging" to Charles' possible role as monarch if released.
But others insist that scrutiny of the letters is important to assess whether Charles took liberties in crossing the traditional divide between the mostly ceremonial role of royals and the world of political decisions and policymaking.
The British Government fought vigorously to block public viewing of the "black spider" memos - so-called because of Charles' scrawly handwriting style. But in March, Britain's Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Guardian, which had pushed for their release.
The cache of 27 letters, written between September 2004 and March 2005, covered issues including badger culling, herbal medicine, problems in the dairy sector, and why saving the Patagonian toothfish should be a government priority. The release of the letters did not trigger the constitutional earthquake some had predicted, leading many to question why the Government fought so hard and at such huge expense to keep them private.
