The Unofficial British Royal
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The Unofficial British Royal
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Monday 8 January 2007 The Duke and Duchess of KentFinally concluding my series on the Queen's cousins this month is her cousin the Duke of Kent. The Queen's uncle Prince George, Duke of Kent, married Princess Marina of Greece and had three children: Edward in 1935, Alexandra on Christmas Day 1936, and Michael in July 1942. Prince George was killed in a plane crash in August 1942, and Princess Marina died of a brain tumor in 1968. Their children have always been close to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, partly because they are his cousins as well as hers.Prince Edward George Nicholas Paul Patrick of Kent became Duke of Kent in 1942, when he was not yet seven years old, and virtually no one realizes now that there is more than one Prince Edward in the royal family. He went to Eton and to Le Rosay in Switzerland, then to Sandhurst, where he qualified as an interpreter of French. (The Kents are all good at languages.) His first Army posting in 1956 was to the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he fell in love with the Lord Lieutenant's shy, musical daughter, Katherine Worsley. Princess Marina had doubts about whether her 21-year-old son was ready for marriage and insisted that he wait. Then he was posted abroad for two years, and then they were not allowed to marry during the same year as Princess Margaret. They finally married on June 8, 1961, in York Minster, with a reception in the grounds of Katherine's family home, Hovington Hall. It was a very informal wedding by royal standards. The early years of the Kents' marriage were happy and informal, as Katherine followed "Eddie" to his Army postings. They have three children: George, Earl of St. Andrews, born in 1963; Lady Helen Taylor, born in 1964; and Lord Nicholas Windsor, born in 1970. Both Kents were active and devoted parents. The family estate at Coppins proved too expensive to run, and the Duke sold it in 1973. He leased Anmer Hall on the Sandringham estate as a smaller country residence, and the Queen gave the Kents a grace-and-favor residence at York House in St. James' Palace. They later moved to Wren House in Kensington Palace and the Prince of Wales moved into York House in 1993 after separating from his wife. The Duke of Kent retired from the Army in 1976 and took on full-time royal duties. The Queen appointed him a Knight of the Garter in 1985. He followed his mother as president of the Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, and has often awarded trophies at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, as have his wife and sister. He is also Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons of England; his father and grandfather were also Masons. Although now over seventy, the Duke continues to perform royal duties, often with military connections. He visited troops in Iraq earlier this year. The duchess suffered an emotional breakdown in 1979 following a stillbirth and the death of her mother, and she continued to suffer from depression during the 1980s. She was received into the Roman Catholic church in 1994, but that did not affect her husband's position in the line of succession. The Duke and Duchess of Kent's marriage is said to be unhappy, but they have always remained discreet and dutiful. The duchess asked to relinquish the style of royal highness in 2002, and although she still does charity work and appears at large family events, she seems to have quietly left the royal family. She teaches music under the name "Mrs. Kent" and has her own apartment. In 2004 she founded a charity called "Future Talent" to encourage children's musical talent. The Earl of St. Andrews is probably the most intellectual of George V's descendants: he was a King's Scholar at Eton and went on to Cambridge. He married a Catholic divorcee, Sylvana Tomaselli, and had to give up his place in the line of succession. The Countess is a professor at Cambridge, and the Earl has done much of the child care for their children, Lord Downpatrick, Lady Marina-Charlotte Windsor, and Lady Amelia Windsor. (Both of the Dukes of Kent were also hands-on fathers.) Lord Downpatrick has been received into the Roman Catholic church and is also excluded from the line of succession. The Kents are becoming a prominent Catholic family. Lady Helen Taylor features frequently in the society pages. She works as an ambassador for Armani and Bulgari, which means that she is photographed wearing their products and only their products. (Nice work if you can get it.) However, she has always maintained a wholesome, maternal image. She is married to the art dealer Tim Taylor, who recently had cancer. They have four children, Columbus, Cassius, Eloise, and Estella. Lord Nicholas Windsor, the youngest of the Kent children, recently made what will probably be the biggest news of his life: he got married in the Vatican, the only member of the British royal family ever to do so. He is, of course, out of the line of succession. Lady Nicholas is the former Paola Doimi de Frankopan. Lord Nicholas has struggled with problems including depression and anorexia, and has not established a career, preferring to do charity work. That brings three columns on the Kents and four on the Queen's cousins to a close. I think that the Kents are a very interesting branch of the royal family tree, and hope that you have enjoyed hearing about them. -
Margaret Weatherford
Previous columns can be found in the archive
This page and its contents are
�2007 Copyright by Geraldine Voost and may not be
reproduced without the authors permission. Margaret Weatherford's column is
�2007 Copyright by Margaret Weatherford who has kindly given permission for it to be displayed on this website.
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