Queen Elizabeth gives Prince Harry, Meghan Markle York Cottage as wedding present

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle asked for donations to charities as wedding gifts, but the Queen isn’t much of a follower. Queen Elizabeth has reportedly gifted the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a rather grand cottage.

The York Cottage is a royal stately home in the grounds of Sandringham Estate, and the newlyweds will reportedly be the proud owners of it. According to Metro, Her Majesty will be giving the property to her grandson and granddaughter-in-law as gift for their wedding.

The York Cottage, which was formerly known as the Bachelor’s Cottage, is currently used as holiday accommodation and partly as accommodation for estate staff. It was given to Prince George, the Duke of York, who would later become King George V, in 1893 by his father, King Edward VII.

The Queen didn’t play favourites when she decided to give Harry and Meghan such a fine and expensive gift. She also did the same to Prince William and Kate Middleton when they married in 2011. The monarch gifted the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Anmer Hall, which is also in Sandringham. And when Prince Charles married Diana, the Queen gave them a house in Scotland.

Harry and Meghan already live in the Nottingham Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace. However, they are apparently still waiting for the renovations on the two-bedroom home to be completed. In the meantime, they have reportedly signed a two-year lease for another home just an hour and a half’s drive away from London.

According to Us Weekly, the two rented a property in the Cotswolds country called Westfield Large, which is part of the Great Tew Estate. The house is on the same 4,000-acre grounds as Soho Farmhouse, where they apparently had enjoyed several romantic dates and spent the weekend before their wedding on May 19.

“Meghan loves the Cotswolds and fell in love with the estate the first time she went,” a source told the paper. “They recently had security cameras installed around the perimeter.”

With their humble home in Kensington, the Cotswolds and the York Cottage, Meghan and Harry now have three homes to go to whenever they want.