Meghan Markle’s Tea with the Queen: A Sign of Approval?

Meghan Markle's first meeting with the Queen has been described as “swimmingly” by sources, and it is widely believed that this meeting will lead to the announcement of her engagement to Prince Harry.

The meeting took place over afternoon tea, which is a royal ritual, and was held in the Queen's private sitting room on the first floor of Buckingham Palace.

Meghan was reportedly spirited into the central courtyard of the palace in a blacked-out people carrier before being whisked up to the Queen's private quarters in a discreet elevator located next to the private secretary's office in the inner sanctum of the palace.

The presence of a meal at 5 p.m. often serves to confuse foreigners, but the Queen, like many of the British upper classes, prefers four meals a day – breakfast, lunch, tea, and dinner.

Tea was reportedly the Queen's favorite meal, according to her former chef Darren McGrady, who spent 14 years in royal service, including three years as Princess Diana's personal chef.

Tea is not elaborate but it is potentially indulgent and elegant.

It usually comprises a large keg from which the Queen cuts slices off.

Fruit cakes are often recycled for up to two weeks as they improve with age, plus smaller pastries, sandwiches, and scones.

The Queen alternates the scones, one day plain, the next day fruit.

Crust-less sandwiches, filled with smoked salmon or cucumber, are cut lengthways, at the Queen's specific behest, according to one source.

Tea is a royal ritual that the Queen exploited to create a forum in which she could naturally dominate proceedings.

Her father and his generation would have regarded tea as pleasant, but the preserve of children, nannies, and women.

When Elizabeth came to the throne, all that sort of thing stopped, according to one source who knew the family in the 1950s.

Elizabeth set about carving out her own space from tea, cake, and scones, and instituted certain rituals of her own.

Visitors are always served her own blend of Darjeeling and Assam tea, known as Queen Mary's blend, and, like all ladies of the house, it is the queen who pours.

Prince Charles used to send her one pound of clotted cream every month to be served with jam and scones, and another signature tea time treat was tipsy tarte, a brandy-soaked date pie that was included in her posthumously published cookbook, A Taste of May.

In the Queen Mum's day, tea would often segue seamlessly into pre-dinner drinks of her beloved Dubonnet.

An invitation to tea, such as that received by Meghan, is quite different from any other form of royal invite.

It is important to separate the studied informality of royalty from the audiences with a prime minister which take place every week, according to Robert Lacey, the historical consultant for the Crown, and author of the new book of the series, The Crown, The Inside History.

Harold Wilson once told Lacey that he assumed the audience would be a case of a G&T and a quick chat about this and that.

He was rather surprised to get there and find the Queen with her red box and several sheets of marked-up papers.

She looked up at him and said, “I'm very interested about this new town in Buckinghamshire that is being proposed, what can you tell me about that?”

He couldn't tell her anything because he hadn't read his boxes.

He said to Lacey, “I never made that mistake again.”

Wilson thereafter took a peculiar interest in Britain's first post-war new town, Milton Keynes.

Tea is a very different matter, a treat reserved for the Queen's best beloved, according to Christopher Anderson, author of the book The Day Diana Died.

An invitation to tea at one of the royal residences is certainly one of the Queen's tricks up her sleeve when it comes to getting to know people.

The mere fact that the Queen is inviting Meghan Markle to something as intimate as tea at Buckingham Palace is a hugely significant step toward joining the royal family.

It's nothing less than an indication that the Queen is giving Meghan her stamp of approval.

The Queen considers her daily afternoon tea as absolutely sacrosanct, and at 5 p.m., Her Majesty drops everything for tea time.

The Queen always insists on being mother pouring everyone else's tea before serving herself.

Everyone drinks from royal crown derby bone china teacups decorated with one of Her Majesty's favorite floral patterns.

The napkins bear the monogram E-I-I-R, Elizabeth to Regina, according to Anderson.

The whole affair seldom lasts more than 45 minutes.

An invite to tea is one of the greatest marks of esteem the Queen can bestow.

Lady Sarah Chateau, Beatrice, and Eugenie are people whose company she genuinely loves, according to one source.

If Meghan Markle has joined that company, then she has joined a very select company indeed.

Harry needs his grandmother's written permission to marry anyone, but in the case of Meghan Markle, this is particularly tricky because she is divorced.

The mere fact that the Queen is inviting her to tea at Buckingham Palace is a hugely significant step toward joining the royal family and an indication that the Queen is giving Meghan her stamp of approval.