The controversial move of the Prince and Princess of Wales to their new home leaves residents without 60 hectares of woodland.
We review all the other houses that William and Catherine had at their disposal: from a palace in London to several country houses
BarcelonaThe future king and queen of the United Kingdom, William and Kate, have now found their permanent home. Or at least that's what they want it to seem... After several moves, the couple has settled on Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom house surrounded by nature and close to London that, far from providing them with the peace of mind they were looking for after her cancer, is causing them a serious backlash of headaches. It's been a long time since British citizens resignedly accepted the designs of their monarchs. Nowadays, when they see something they don't like—or, worse still: when they directly suffer from a royal decision—they come out to strongly criticize it in the media, which is where it hurts the Prince and Princess of Wales the most, the great hope of a monarchy that has been in dire straits since the anti-charismatic Charles and Camilla came to the throne.
But what sin has caused the residents of the Windsor area where the... cottage Are they complaining bitterly? Well, the alleged security measures needed by the Prince and Princess of Wales, which will allow them to keep a total of 60 hectares of meadow and forest around the house, having already owned 150 hectares of their own. According to reports, with the intention of protecting the three children of the Prince and Princess of Wales—Jordi, 12; Charlotte, 10; and Lluís, 7—from media and social pressure, as well as with the desire to protect them physically from any possible scare, they have decided to appropriate a large amount of natural land within Windsor Great Park that until now was open to everyone. This, which in itself is already a major inconvenience for people who don't have gardens or very large houses, has been communicated via fait accompli to the residents of the area, who have found a sign at one of the entrances that reads: "Due to the pending designation of a portion of the Great Park as a restricted area, access through it is restricted."
Immediate arrest
To ensure that this new reality doesn't cause any problems, the palace has taken unconciliatory measures, such as erecting a fence or installing state-of-the-art video surveillance cameras in the heart of nature. And if all these privileges weren't enough, William and Kate have another highly deterrent instrument: the law. Public access to this part of Windsor Great Park will be permanently blocked once it officially becomes a designated property under the Police and Serious Organized Crime Act 2005. The law protects Crown land, private land belonging to the King, and also land belonging to his immediate heir. This empowers authorities to immediately arrest anyone who trespasses in an area under this classification.
This has obviously inflamed tempers in the area, with some regular park users even describing it to media outlets who have questioned them as "a kick in the teeth" or "disappointing." It is assumed that their indignation stems not only from losing access to a particularly attractive area, but also from the fact that the Windsors have plenty of properties to move to without further inconveniencing taxpayers. In fact, they will be living in this Georgian mansion, which they will be significantly renovating to provide the ultimate comfort. necessary, the princes will continue to have ownership of apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, in the heart of London's Hyde Park. The most privileged of all the apartments in the palace and where they established their first home just after getting married, which had to be adapted to their tastes and needs.
Houses for sale
Since then, they have also lived at Amner Hall, a gift from Queen Elizabeth II after the couple's wedding. It is a 10-bedroom Georgian mansion within the Sandringham estate, one of her family's palaces. Specifically, it is where they spend Christmas. The then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who were not yet Prince and Princess of Wales, lived there for several years, between 2014 and 2022, while William worked as an air ambulance pilot in East Anglia, that part of eastern England.
From there, where they had raised their first two children, they moved to Adelaide Cottage, where they had lived until now. The official reasons for moving to this listed house, with more than 200 years of history, were that their children would be closer to Lambrook School, where they currently attend, and that they would be closer to Queen Elizabeth II, who spent her final years at Windsor Castle, where this house is located. This beautiful estate, full of historic details, has a rich history, as it was built as a summer home for Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV. Despite all the rich interior decorations—some recycled from a royal family yacht—the house has gone down in history as the home of the controversial romance between Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend, the man who looked after the horses of King George VI, her father. When Townsend divorced his wife, he stayed there to continue his work and lived there during his most carefree years of relationship with Margaret, younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II.
After all this journey, the prince's logical destination was Royal Lodge, one of the family's most important mansions, with 30 rooms, where the Queen Mother lived until her death in 2003. Despite the fact that as heir apparent it was his logical destination, King Charles III's brother has managed to avoid being evicted from all of them. And yet the monarch was determined to get rid of him no matter what, since his image is—after the Epstein pedophilia case—a real burden on the Windsors. Imagine how many secrets he must have that not even the king has been able to dislodge him, and his own son has had to move to a house that is secondary to them and that, originally, was the Windsor gamekeeper's house.
The only benefit of living at Forest Lodge for Guillem and Caterina will be that the house is very close to Eton, the school where they are expected to take – at least – their heir, Jordi. Perhaps raising them outside the city was just another way of using an excuse to do what the parents have always done. royals British, but disguised as a love of nature. A nature that the locals, after all the Windsor property shows, will only be able to enjoy from their front windows. As the saying goes: everything changes so everything stays the same.
