Princes William and Harry seem as far apart as brothers can be – but in a London cemetery (instead of at Windsor) the previous dukes of Sussex and Cambridge lie almost side by side

At present, princes William and Harry appear as far aside as brothers may be – residing on totally different continents, barely speaking, and separated by an important divide within the Royal Household.

This rift was on full show when Harry returned to the UK for the Invictus Video games ten-year anniversary this month – however by no means got here near assembly along with his brother. 

But, in a single nook of north-west London, the speedy predecessors to the dukedoms they got by their grandmother, the late Queen, lie peacefully virtually aspect by aspect.

In an uncanny quirk of destiny, the final dukes of Cambridge and Sussex earlier than William and Harry are buried shut to one another in Kensal Inexperienced Cemetery.

There, amongst 1000’s of graves throughout 72 acres, the Duke of Cambridge has an Egyptian-style mausoleum for him and his spouse, whereas, solely yards away, the Duke of Sussex is buried in a grand tomb. 

Subsequent to the latter duke lies one among his wives, while his sister Princess Sophia rests reverse. 

Like William and Harry, each males had been direct descendants of a monarch. The Duke of Sussex was the son of George III, while the Duke of Cambridge was the King’s grandson. 

And whereas there are various variations between the lives of the nineteenth century dukes and the twenty first century ones, there are additionally many putting similarities.

However why was it that George III’s grandson and son each ended up at a public cemetery in London, when their household had been interred at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Fortress, the Royal Burial Floor at close by Frogmore, or in one among Britain’s nice church buildings or cathedrals? 

Admittedly, Kensal Inexperienced Cemetery is among the ‘magnificent seven’ Victorian London cemeteries – together with West Norwood, Highgate, Abney Park, Brompton, Nunhead and Tower Hamlets.

It accommodates the resting locations of the likes of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, playwrights Harold Pinter and Terence Rattigan, and novelists Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope and William Makepeace Thackeray. 

However there are additionally 65,000 different, primarily peculiar souls in its sliver of land between the Harrow Street and Grand Union Canal.

The reply to why the royals are right here tells us a lot in regards to the characters of each dukes but in addition – simply as essential – the ladies they selected to spend their lives with. 

As a result of whereas Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge, had a distinguished army profession that noticed him turn into Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, his rackety love life meant that he couldn’t be thought of for burial alongside along with his ancestors. 

He additionally breached the Royal Marriages Act by not searching for the approval of Queen Victoria when he married in 1847. 

In the meantime, the liberal Prince Augustus Frederick married twice, on each events breaching the Act. He additionally laid out in his will that he didn’t desire a state funeral, and so ended up at Kensal Inexperienced.

The Royal Marriages Act, which was repealed in 2011, allowed a sovereign to veto a wedding of a member of the family that they didn’t see as match. 

It’s this laws that, finally, would result in William and Harry being given their dukedoms, as a result of, having contravened the Royal Marriages Act, the sooner dukes had been forfeiting their youngsters’s proper to inherit the titles. 

With no heirs, the titles lapsed, till Queen Elizabeth II resurrected them for William and Harry’s marriages to Catherine and Meghan Markle.

One of many causes that Prince George didn’t search Victoria’s approval for his marriage – thus condemning the dukedom he had inherited from his father, George III’s son Prince Adolphus – was due to his supposed’s career. Sarah Fairbrother was, like Meghan, an actress.

Nevertheless, there was extra to make Sarah not apparent ‘royal marriage materials’. 

Other than the truth that her father was a servant, there was the thorny situation that, by the point of her wedding ceremony, she had had 4 youngsters already by three totally different fathers, and two of the youngsters had been the Duke of Cambridge’s.

‘That consent would by no means have been given for him to marry an actress with 4 illegitimate youngsters (by three totally different fathers),’ writes household historian Anthony J Camp.

However the fathers of the 2 youngsters Sarah had earlier than her two with the duke had been with males virtually as notable as Prince George. 

One was Charles John Manners Sutton, later the 2nd Viscount Canterbury, and the opposite was Colonel Thomas Bernard of the Anglo-Irish British Military, whose household seat was Fortress Bernard in Eire’s County Offaly.

When Sarah and the duke lastly married, they did so on the church of St John Clerkenwell in London, with the duke describing himself within the register as ‘George Frederick Cambridge, gentleman’ and signing as ‘George Cambridge’. 

As she walked down the aisle, Sarah – who had been a daily on the London stage between the 1820s and 1840s and regarded one of the vital lovely girls of her time – was pregnant with their third youngster.

However she couldn’t have a royal title, and even name herself the Duchess of Cambridge, as a result of her marriage was thought of invalid. As a substitute, Sarah styled herself Mrs FitzGeorge, and the couple’s three sons, who all rose to excessive positions within the Armed Forces, got that surname.

When she died aged 75 in 1890, she was laid to relaxation within the mausoleum at Kensal Inexperienced that the Duke of Cambridge had commissioned for them. Nevertheless, shut by was the grave of 1 Louisa Beauclerk, one of many girls with whom the duke is alleged to have performed an affair. 

Solely two years after his ‘marriage’ to Sarah, Louisa had turn into his mistress and he determined then that she could be buried close to him.

Prince George died aged 84 in 1904, 22 years after Louisa and 14 years after Sarah. He’s commemorated by an equestrian statue on Whitehall in London, noting his service within the Armed Forces.

In his life, the duke spoke out towards organized marriages, believing them doomed to failure. He had been groomed from a younger age by his godfather, King William IV, to be a possible husband for the monarch’s niece and successor Victoria. He was even introduced up at Windsor for this objective. 

Nevertheless, Victoria’s maternal uncle Leopold I of Belgium objected and secured her marriage to Prince Albert. That organized marriage, opposite to the Duke of Cambridge’s views, famously proved to be a love match. 

The irony for the Duke of Cambridge was that it was Queen Victoria’s consent he wanted to marry. If William IV had obtained his manner, the duke would have been marrying Victoria herself.

Though it’s odd that the graves of the dukes of Cambridge and Sussex have ended up shut to one another in a public cemetery, it’s one way or the other becoming. Particularly since George III gave these titles to 2 successive sons born little greater than a yr aside. 

On January 27, 1773, Prince Augustus Frederick was born and was made the primary Duke of Sussex. On February 24, 1774, Prince Adolphus arrived, and was made Duke of Cambridge. 

Adolphus had a distinguished army profession and his marriage to Princess Augusta of Hesse-Kassel obtained the royal thumbs-up, so the title was carried on by their son, Prince George.

Nevertheless, from early on, Prince Augustus was marching to a unique beat to the remainder of his siblings. He was the one surviving son of George III to not pursue an Military or Navy profession, and he supported causes such because the lifting of restrictions on Catholics and Jews, and Protestants who had separated from the Church of England.

Though he was despatched to check on the College of Gottingen in Germany along with his brother Adolphus, the asthmatic Augustus didn’t have the customary army coaching in Hanover that his sibling did. 

Whereas travelling in Italy, he met Girl Augusta Murray, daughter of the Scottish 4th Earl of Dunmore, and so they had been married secretly in Rome on April 4, 1793, in resort lodgings, by a rogue Anglican cleric from Norfolk.

George III subsequently despatched a minister to escort him again to London, whereupon the couple married once more, with out revealing their full identities, at St George’s church, Hanover Sq.. And simply as with Prince George’s marriage, the bride walked down the aisle pregnant, significantly closely.

In 1794 the wedding was declared null and void. Augustus was ordered in another country by George III and took up with an Italian opera singer known as Giuseppina Grassi in Naples. Like his nephew the Duke of Cambridge, Augustus had an untrue streak.

In the meantime, Augusta, who was advised to remain again in Britain, had a relationship along with her cousin, Lord Archibald Hamilton. The Sussexes briefly reunited, and he or she gave beginning once more, however in 1801 Augustus obtained a parliamentary grant of £12,000 and the couple separated.

Augustus continued along with his pursuits – he grew to become a patron of the Jews’ Hospital and Orphan Asylum but in addition the Grand Grasp of the United Grand Lodge of England and based the Royal Masonic Benevolent Establishment. 

And after Augusta died in 1830, the duke married for a second time. Once more, he didn’t search royal approval. Such was his disdain for royal protocol by now.

His new partner was Girl Cecilia Letitia Buggin, whose father was a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy. Nevertheless, though the couple lived in Kensington Palace, she was by no means accepted as a full royal in regal circles.

The duke died in 1843, aged 70, and, in accordance along with his will, was buried at Kensal Inexperienced. Girl Cecilia, who outlived her husband by 30 years, later joined him in Kensal Inexperienced. His sister Princess Sophia, who died in 1848, lies reverse him in accordance along with her needs. 

She died in 1848 and had specified that she needed to be buried close to him moderately than at Windsor. Just like the duke, scandal shrouded Sohpia’s life. It was alleged she had given beginning to an illegitimate youngster in 1800.

Regardless of his unorthodox royal life, the duke did appear widespread. He was a favorite uncle of Queen Victoria and even gave her away when she married Prince Albert. He was additionally famous for his campaigning towards the slave commerce and for reform of Parliament. 

The Instances wrote on his loss of life: ‘No loss of life within the royal household quick of the particular demise of a monarch may have occasioned a stronger feeling of deprivation.’

Prince Harry’s son Archie is more likely to inherit his father’s Duke of Sussex title when he dies. Given the twists his life has taken, who is aware of the place Harry can be buried. 

Paradoxically, Frogmore Cottage, the place he and Meghan lived earlier than transferring to America, is subsequent to the Royal Burial Floor at Windsor, which his predecessor eschewed as a doable resting place due to his marriages.

In the meantime, William, now Prince of Wales, will see his Duke of Cambridge title revert to the Crown when he ascends the throne. It is going to then be obtainable to be bestowed on another person. 

When the time comes, that determine can be hoping that their path in life differs from the considerably chequered footsteps of the nineteenth century duke.