Get out Charles - Welsh nationalists threaten Prince over holiday home

Anti-terrorist police are investigating threats from a group calling itself Army Council of the Welsh Republican Army.

They have demanded Charles give up ownership of the Carmarthenshire estate by December. If he refuses, they say, he will become a "legitimate target for republican action".

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See more pictures of Charles and Camilla's Welsh holiday home

The group does not specify what form that action will take but does warn that "failure to accept the terms of this warning will result in the most serious represcusions (sic)".

The WRA is believed to be a splinter group of the defunct Free Wales Army, which was responsible for a programme of civil disruption in the lead up to Charles's investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969.

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Hours before the ceremony took place two men, both affiliated to another nationalist group, were killed by a home-made bomb they were planning to use against the prince.

Since then nationalist opposition to Charles has been muted, although in recent years there has been criticism that he spends more time at his estate in Scotland than in the country that gave him his title.

It is one of the reasons that the prince was keen to find a property in Wales.

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Last November, he finally acquired Llwynywormwood, a three-bedroom former coach house in Carmarthenshire.

He and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, had fallen in love with the property on an earlier visit to the region and bought it for an estimated £1.2million.

The 192-acre estate includes a stunning walled garden, the ruins of a 19th century mansion house and even, it is rumoured, its own ghost.

Charles bought the property through the Duchy of Cornwall, the private estate that provides his income, and plans to spend tens of thousands of pounds bringing it up to date so that it can be rented out when he and Camilla aren't staying there.

The prospect of sleeping in the future King's bed - not to mention using his bathroom and kitchen cutlery - led to a deluge of inquiries by holidaymakers keen to sample a taste of royal country living.

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The prince's project was delayed, however, after the local council discovered a colony of bats in one of the barns singled out for redevelopment.

Several locals, it emerged, had also lodged objections to his plans for the estate. Last month, those objections were finally dismissed and the prince given permission to forge ahead with his scheme.

The latest threats may throw another spanner in the works. Police sources say they were made in a letter to a local newspaper, signed with the name "Rebecca" - believed to be a reference to the 19th century Rebecca Riots, sparked by discontent among locals at English rule.

It read: "We, the representatives of the Army Council of the Welsh Republican Army call upon Charles Windsor the English Prince and usurper of the Title Prince of Wales, to vacate his Welsh mansion Llwynywormwood, Myddfai, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, by December 11th 2007 or become a legitimate target for Republican action.

"We further call upon Mr Windsor to relinquish his claim to the title Prince of Wales. Failure to accept the terms of this warning will result in the most severe represcusions (sic)."

A spokesman for Dyfed-Powys Police confirmed the force was taking the threats seriously and had begun an investigation.

Clarence House said it never commented publicly about security issues.