THE QUEEN'S CHAPEL, ST. JAMES'S PALACE

The coffin of Princess Margaret remained in The Queen's Chapel, St. James's Palace until Thursday 14th February, to enable her family and friends to pay their respects privately. 

The Queen's Chapel stands near Marlborough House and was once part of St James's Palace, but after a fire at the Palace in 1809 it was left isolated. Designed by Inigo Jones in the Palladian style, it was the first post-Reformation church in England to be built for Roman Catholic worship.
 
The Chapel was commissioned in 1623 for the Infanta of Spain, the intended wife of Charles I. It was completed in 1626-7 for Charles I's eventual Queen, Henrietta Maria of France, who used it as her private Roman Catholic chapel, bringing with her a bishop and priests from France as her chaplains. 
 
During the Commonwealth the Chapel was probably stripped of its treasures and in 1650 a Council of State directed that it should be used as a library. In 1662, however, it was refurnished and restored as a place of worship by Charles II for his Queen, Catherine of Braganza. Subsequently it was used by Mary of Modena, the second wife, and Queen, of James II.
 
In 1689 the Chapel was closed, but around 1700 William III granted it for Reformed worship by French- and Dutch-speaking congregations; later, Queen Anne established a German Lutheran Royal Chapel in a room in Great Court. George III married Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in the Queen's Chapel in 1761. In 1781 the use of the two chapel buildings was exchanged and the Queen's Chapel became known as the German Chapel Royal. From 1880 until 1936 the Queen's Chapel was used by a Danish Lutheran congregation, who erected a tablet to the memory of Queen Alexandra.
 
After Queen Mary came to live at Marlborough House in her widowhood, the Chapel was restored.

In 1938 the Queen's Chapel was given to the use of the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace, and services are regularly held in it.