Who was living with Harry and Meghan?

With the imminent birth of their first child, the Duke and Duchess of Susbad left Kensington Palace to settle in their new home.

Nestled in a quiet corner on the grounds of the great Frogmore House in Windsor, Frogmore Cottage has a rich history – and Meghan and Harry are far from its first notable residents.

A royal refuge

If Meghan and Harry are looking for a house out of public view, Frogmore Cottage is the perfect place.

From the beginning, it was conceived as an isolated refuge from the pressures of the royal life, the archives of its occupants being rare.

Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, had it built in 1792 as a place where she and her daughters could escape the court.

At the time, it was fashionable for the wealthy to build large houses disguised as idyllic rural cottages.

However, the queen also wanted her daughters "to leave to escape the folly of George", according to the writer and historian Helen Rappaport.

"It was like a big retreat in the Windsor area where she could go and choke," said Dr. Rappaport.

"The king has had fits of madness, it was probably pretty hard to live with and probably used Frogmore Cottage as a retreat."

The teacher "hated"

Abdul Karim, an Indian Muslim, arrived in England in 1887 to serve at Queen Victoria's table during his Golden Jubilee celebrations.

The 24-year-old had such an impact on the aging monarch that he became a well-established figure in the court during the year.

The queen made her his teacher – or Munshi – the initiator to Urdu and Indian affairs. She gave him honors, titles and gifts, including the use of Frogmore Cottage.

She visited him "every two days" at the cottage and never "missed a lesson" from Karim, according to author Shrabani Basu.

Ms. Basu, who discovered calendars detailing their relationships, said that Victoria had established a close and almost maternal relationship with Karim and would sign letters like "your beloved mother" and "your closest friend".

Karim renovated the house and lived there with his wives from 1893.

However, her close relationship with the Queen angered her family and courtiers, and her death in 1901 abruptly ended her life in Frogmore and the United Kingdom.

A few hours after his funeral, the new King Edward VII, who "hated" Karim, had his home searched and destroyed his papers. He ordered him to return to India, where he died a few years later, at the age of 46.

"She was her protector," said Ms. Basu. "It was curtains for him, they just rejected him."

Russians impoverished

When Tsar Nicholas II and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918, his surviving parents fled to the United Kingdom aboard a warship sent by their close relative, King George V.

Among them was the Tsar's sister – and the King's cousin – the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.

When she arrived in the UK, the Grand Duchess and her children lived independently for a while, but they ran out of money quickly.

In 1925, the King settled them at Frogmore Cottage, along with several of his sons and their families. When he became too busy, the king also offered the Home Park Cottage, located nearby.

Marlene Eilers Koenig, an expert on British and European royalties, said the Grand Duchess was "almost destitute" by the time she moved in.

The poverty of the royal refugees meant that the cottage was soon in poor condition. Residents of the favor and favor houses were required to pay for any internal changes, but the "difficult" financial situation of the Grand Duchess prevented her from affording to maintain the house.

In 1929, an official from the Department of Public Works discovered that the cottage was in a "deplorable state".

"The wallpaper tore the walls, the ceilings were dirty and the plaster broke off the walls," added Koenig. "The house needed more than just a paint stroke."

Dr. Rappaport said the cottage had been "extremely neglected", lit with "oil lamps and candles" and had no red-colored toilets.

The renovation was financed by the king, who also provided his cousin with an annual pension of £ 2,400.

After the king's death in 1936, his son, King Edward VIII, proposed to Xenia and his family Wilderness House, on the Hampton Court property, to leave Frogmore.

Since the Second World War, the cottage was used by staff members of the royal family, even if a mystery surrounding it.

This may explain why the Duke and Duchess of Susbad regard Windsor as their "very special place".