Here's the main thing to know about Frogmore Cottage, the new home of Prince Harry and the Duchess Meghan and their baby expected in the spring: 40 kilometers from the noisy city of London. and curious paparazzi.

This could be one of the main reasons for the surprise announcement on Saturday that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will move to the "cottage" next year as they prepare for the arrival of their first child and a great-grandchild to Queen Elizabeth II.

Privacy, which has been Harry's concern for a long time, could be the key to Frogmore Cottage's appeal. It is located on the lush grounds of Windsor Castle Home Park, with an area of ​​35 acres, and is therefore in a narrow security zone around the castle where the Queen usually spends most weekends.

Kensington Palace did not reveal how Harry and Meghan came to take possession of their new dig, but since all of these royal properties are under the control of the Queen, it is likely that she gave them a gift.

The couple live at Nottingham Cottage, in the precincts of Kensington Palace, since the announcement of their engagement in November 2017, but it is too small for a growing family: it does not matter hardly that of a two-bedroom apartment.

In addition, part of Kensington Palace is regularly open to the public, which could explain why Harry and Meghan want to get away from Brother Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge.

"Frogmore Cottage will be ideal for intimacy, for which Harry and Meghan place such importance, for obvious reasons," said Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams at USA TODAY. "William and Kate will one day be King and Queen Consort, Harry, sixth on the throne, enjoys freedoms he wants to exploit with Meghan."

Former royal press officer Dickie Arbiter tweeted a photo of the cottage and his joy at seeing Harry and Meghan settle there.

"Happy to see the Duke and Duchess of Sussex moving to Frogmore Cottage Windsor next year.It is located in a charming, safe and secure location – away from prying eyes – and has plenty of Space for raising a family. The only drawback – planes coming in and out of Heathrow, "he tweeted.

Will and Kate also lived at Nottingham Cottage and brought their first baby, Prince George, age 5, home. But they soon settled in a large 20-room house in the main palace, once occupied by the late Princess Margaret and known as Apartment 1A, their base in London. They now have three children, including Princess Charlotte, aged 3, and little Prince Louis, born in April.

Harry and Meghan also had to settle in a large similar apartment near his brother's palace, but plans changed after the couple returned from their three-week tour last month to Australia, New Zealand and New York. in the South Pacific.

The announcement of the palace only provided an enigmatic explanation: "Windsor is a very special place for their Royal Highnesses and they are grateful that their official residence is on the estate and their official office will continue to be based at Kensington Palace. "

Translation: The spectacular wedding of Harry and Meghan took place on May 19 at Windsor Castle, specifically at St. George's Chapel. Frogmore House, on the Windsor Estate, is where they posed for some of their engagement photos in November. And Frogmore House is the place where Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, hosted a dinner reception for his son and his new daughter-in-law following the wedding.

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Harry and Meghan are known to be caught with the Frogmore Estate and Gardens, which is why they chose it for the engagement photos. Meghan wears Ralph & Russo's couture dress at $ 75,000 as they land on the steps of the house. It is thought that they had a summer picnic on the field before the engagement.

Frogmore House is a 17th-century mansion located about 1.5 km from Windsor Castle on the outskirts of London. It is best known as a former residence of the royal family and is only open to the public three times a year.

Frogmore is also the site of the Royal Burial Ground, the cemetery that surrounds the Royal Mausoleum where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are buried.

(Also buried are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor – the former King Edward VIII who abdicated his throne in 1936 to marry another American divorced, Wallis Simpson, which took them away from the royal family until 39 at their death.)

But the two-story Frogmore Cottage, located north of the house in a marshy area near the Thames River, is different. This is not really a "cottage". if the term is defined as a small house; this is more like the term used to describe the baron robber mansions built in Newport, Rhode Island, in the late 19th century.

More recently, Frogmore Cottage was used to house royal staff in half a dozen apartments. It will now be refurbished to create a five-bedroom home for Harry and Meghan, as well as the baby and his grandmother Doria Ragland, Meghan's mother, who has to travel frequently to Los Angeles.

Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, used the cottage as a retreat in the countryside for her and her unmarried daughters from the 1790s. Queen Victoria lunched at the cottage in the summer of 1875 and reported a number "huge" frog that she found "pretty disgusting", according to one of her letters.

Over the years, various royalty and royal staff have inhabited this home, including Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her Indian servant and teacher, Abdul Karim, as shown in the 2017 movie "Victoria & Abdul". Later, Grand Duchess Xenia, a royal exile from her native Russia, stayed there in the 1920s after the Russian Revolution.

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