Back in 1992, stunned silence filled the House of Parliament when then-Prime Minister John Major told the legislative body that their sovereign, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, was looking into ways that she could pay taxes, as The Washington Post reported.

The queen did not, however, explicitly say why she was suddenly interested in paying taxes. A spokesperson, the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Airlie, noted via The L.A. Times that this was simply a matter of updating the monarchy for the times in which it functioned.

“It is only by moving with the times, not too fast and not too slow, that the institution itself can continue to make its essential contribution to national life,” he said.

The Post, however, noted that, at the time, the recession-ravaged British public were starting to get fed up with the lavish wealth of their monarchs. In particular, a fire had severely damaged Windsor Castle, bringing with it a $90 million repair bill for which the British taxpayers were going to be on the hook.

Meanwhile, the idea of the British monarch voluntarily paying taxes was not without precedent. According to The New York Times, Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, and her great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, also voluntarily paid taxes.