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The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 May took place against a backdrop of buildings that have been inhabited almost continuously since the 11th century. The fire of November 1992 at Windsor Castle (in what the Queen later called her annus horribilis) could have brought an end to that 1,000-year history; instead, the restoration that ensued was accompanied by extensive research into the castle’s fabric and development. The following edited extracts come from a new and exhaustive history of the building complex, which Samuel Pepys, visiting on 26 February 1666, described as ‘the most Romantique castle that is in the world’.