Princess Beatrice (left) with her father and sister.

Popular Princess Beatrice is having her 18th birthday party a month early because most of the Royal family will be in Scotland when the day in August actually falls.

True to many similar Royal parties, the bash will have a theme. How very Fergie-like then that the masked ball for 200 will require guests to display “bustles and corsets”.

The choice is built around Bea’s birth date of 08 (August), 1988, so the 1888 theme seems like a good idea.

At least Prince Harry won’t be able to turn up in a Nazi uniform. What he does wear though, might be equally embarrassing.

See also: Duchess and Daughters Watch DVDs for 20 Hours on Aristocracy Anecdotes.

With strange reports that Princess Michael of Kent has not only taken a Russian toyboy, but proudly paraded him around Venice in sight of the paparazzi, comes the news that she and Prince Michael have finally sold their country property, Nether Lypiatt.

The mystery buyer was revealed as a controversial Minister in the Labour Government, Lord Drayson.

The 46-year-old businessman, Labour donor, and recipient of lucrative government contracts, has been named “Lord Crony” by the press and opposition politicians. He is said to have paid £5.75 million ($10.58m) for the country mansion near Stroud in Gloucestershire.

The sale will be a relief for the Royal couple. The Queen’s support for their Grace and Favour apartment at Kensington Palace ends in 2009 and there’s some speculation that a divorce is being considered.

No wonder the Princess felt emboldened to flaunt her wealthy Russian boyfriend before the media. Could it be curtains for her Royal status though?

Princess Michael (right) with son Lord Freddie and daughter Ella.

What is it like to be Royal and have every facet of your life examined by the media? Prince and Princess Michael of Kent must know the feeling well.

Yesterday, the UK Sunday Times ran an article on the level of debt charged against their country home, Nether Lypiatt, which has been on the market for nearly a year. It seems that Land Registry documents reveal the couple remortgaged the house in Bisley, Gloucestershire, a few months before putting it on sale for £6m in May last year.

In February the couple were forced to drop their asking price by £500,000 to £5.5m after failing to attract a buyer. The mortgage, says the paper, taken out with Coutts in September 2004, is clocking up interest charges of at least £100,000 a year, even if it is at a highly competitive rate of 5%.

“The couple decided to sell Nether Lypiatt — which they bought in February 1981 for £259,745 — after the Queen told them she would not pay the reported £125,000-a-year rent on their London apartment at Kensington Palace beyond 2009.”

In an interview last year Princess Michael spoke of her distress following parliamentary criticism. Labour MPs described the couple as “squatters” after it emerged that the Queen was allowing them to live in the apartment for a peppercorn rent.

Princess Michael said: “Having been given the Kensington Palace apartment for life, I assumed we would live the rest of our days there and I thought we would sell [Nether Lypiatt] and that would be our income. The shock is that we’ve lost our old-age pension because we can’t do that any more.”

To top all that, they can’t sell the house either. As we reported earlier, various celebrities have turned it down because of the lack of privacy. Estate agents have advised them to drop the price to £4.5m, matching an offer made by artist Damien Hirst which was rejected. But that would only leave £2 million for the pension pot — chicken-feed for a family of Royals.

The betting, though, must be that a lower asking price will eventually be inevitable.

Royal Anecdotes has covered the long-running saga of the sale of Nether Lypiatt before. The country house of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent has been on the market for ten months. It’s said to be poorly decorated, even down-at-heel, and to be too close to the Stroud Pony Club for comfort. The price has been lowered from £6m to £5.5m, all to no avail.

The latest prospective buyer was TV presenter Noel Edmonds, a man forced to part with his beloved Okehampton estate following a messy divorce. Surely Noel, who is currently enjoying renewed success with his television career, would take to the early 18th-century mansion set in 36 acres, with eight bedrooms and six bathrooms? Unhappily, it was not to be.

The decor didn’t matter to Edmonds, President of the British Horse Society, who had planned extensive refurbishment anyway. It was the overall lack of privacy that put him off, a view that echoes other complaints about noise from the Pony Club.

A friend of Edmonds said: “The house completely lacks privacy. It can be viewed easily by members of the public from the road outside. It isn’t a main road — but it’s used as a cut-through between Bisley and Stroud. A number of celebrities have viewed it and its lack of privacy is why they’re struggling to find a buyer.”

The Royal couple are anxious to sell because their rent subsidy from the Queen of £120,000 a year for their apartment in Kensington Palace runs out next year. Estate agents have advised that Nether Lypiatt is unlikely to go for more than £4.5m, a sum recently offered by artist Damien Hurst.