Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been gifted a lavish cottage by the Queen, it has been reported.
Queen Elizabeth II is said to have given the married couple Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.
It has a special historic link to Princess Margaret, the Queen’s late sister, who died at the age of 71 in 2002.
The cottage is a Grade II listed property located in Windsor’s Home Park.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were offered the home by the Queen and chose to accept it, according to a source.
“The Queen has offered the Grade II listed property to the newlyweds as a gift,” a inside source told the Mail on Sunday.
“The couple had been for a viewing, liked it and will move in soon,” the publication reported.
So who lived in this home before? It is known Adelaide Cottage was once home to Group Captain Peter Townsend.
Peter was once engaged to Princess Margaret in the fifties, after serving as Equerry to her father King George VI.
However, the pair were forbidden to marry by the Church of England, as Peter was a divorcee, and tragically had to end their engagement.
Now the home is where Meghan and Harry can expected privacy away from the public eye.
The Mail on Sunday source also added: “There are seven gated entrances and exits to Windsor Castle so the newlyweds could come and go without worrying about being photographed.”
The main bedroom in the cottage is said to have a lavish coved ceiling decorated with gilded dolphins.
Given the couple’s new connection to Princess Margaret, it might be asked why did the Queen allow Prince Harry to marry Meghan this year, but did not allow her own sister to marry Peter?
The answer is that an important rule change happened in the mean time, which revised the Church of England’s stance on divorce.
As the head of the Church of England, the Queen must follow its teachings. This is believed to be why she did not allow Princess Margaret to marry in 1953, a time when the Church forbid divorce.
Princess Margaret called off her engagement two years later in 1955, stating “the Church’s teachings that Christian marriage is indissoluble” as her reasoning.
But, in 2002, this all changed. The rule change came as part of the General Synod of 2002, which modernised the Church laws.
It stated: “The Church of England teaches that marriage is for life. It also recognises that some marriages sadly do fail and, if this should happen, it seeks to be available for all involved.
“The Church accepts that, in exceptional circumstances, a divorced person may marry again in church during the lifetime of a former spouse.”
