DUCHESSES: LIVING IN
21ST CENTURY BRITAIN (pub. Blink Publishing, 4th Sept 2014)
Jane’s latest
non-fiction book, ‘Duchesses: Living in 21st Century Britain’ was
published by Blink Books (an imprint of Bonnier Publishing) on 4
September 2014. For the first time ten of Britain’s non-royal
duchesses talk candidly about their role and their lives in the 21st
century, when privilege is not a popular concept. Each also selects
her favourite duchess from the past, providing a colourful gallery
through the centuries. The book also contains a digital element.
ISBN 9781905825851
Hatchards of
Piccadilly, London, hosted the launch party and created an
eye-catching window display.
Jane Dismore -
Duchesses - Living in 21st Century Britain
Published on Aug 20,
2014
For some the title
Duchess evokes the grandeur of stately homes but for other’s it’s
about unearned privileges. But above all, it is a title that many
feel is historic with little relevance in today’s society. However
in April 2011 the title was taken out of its antechamber, dusted off
and deposited firmly in the High Street and on the internet: giving
an old title to a young lady as twenty-first century as Kate
Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge was to make it topical, even
desirable, again.
But despite the
Queen awarding Prince William a dukedom, the future for dukes,
especially non-royal, is not bright. There are only twenty-four left
in Britain today: they, and therefore their duchesses, are an
endangered species. Yet little is known about these women or what
their relevance is in today’s Britain.
In this unique book
ten of Britain’s remaining non-royal duchesses talk of their lives
and their roles in the twenty-first century. Most never speak
publically; those who do seldom speak about themselves. To be granted
an interview was therefore a huge privilege.
With 10 chapters
focussed on each Duchess, there are also 10 sub chapters looking at a
specific ancestor as a comparison. 5 of the Duchess have also allowed
us access to their homes and their chapters with include augmented
reality technology.
What’s in the
title?
The title of duchess
has long been part of Britain’s heritage. In 2011, it was brought
up to date
The Duchess of
Cambridge
with the marriage of
Prince William and Catherine Middleton, when the Queen conferred a
number of titles on her grandson, among them Duke of Cambridge.
Catherine joined that select group of the highest-ranking duchesses,
well-known royals whose husbands are dukes as members of the Royal
Family. Another group of women sit one notch down from royalty, but
at the top of the aristocratic tree with their dukes. These non-royal
duchesses, of whom there are just 24, enjoy titles that were bestowed
by monarchs for centuries but they are a dying breed: it is unlikely
that any more non-royal dukedoms will be created.
Torquhil and Eleanor
with their children (from left) Archibald, Charlotte and Rory
Duchess
originals: Meet the commoners who married into aristocracy
By Jane Dismore
Published: 23:01
GMT, 30 August 2014 |
THE
DUCHESS OF ARGYLL
Eleanor Cadbury
married Torquhil Ian Campbell, 13th Duke of Argyll and head of one of
Scotland’s most powerful clans, in 2002. Their main home is
Inveraray Castle by Loch Fyne.
Eleanor sees the
main role of a duchess in the 21st century as looking after the
stately home, if there is one. ‘For many duchesses, sadly, over the
years, money’s got tighter and tighter. Not everyone has a great
pile to try to finance.’ And her view of her position is pragmatic.
‘It’s not going to be like a film, where you marry and walk
around the shrubbery all day. You have a job to do. I used to work in
PR so now I PR the castle. I’m not interested in people knowing
about me. I’ve got three small children and a castle to run.
‘In the old days,
the aristocracy only married the aristocracy and my family, who were
Quakers, only married within that group. My father’s a Cadbury,
whose ancestors were Birmingham industrialists, my grandmother was a
Milward – they made knitting needles – and the industrial
families often married each other. But all that’s changed now. My
children are at school with a complete range of people, which is
brilliant.
‘People expect me
to be terribly grand. So when I turn up in my trainers they’re
surprised. They assume you should be snooty, but no one can get on in
the world like that these days. It doesn’t work.’
She sometimes acts
as lady-in-waiting to Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, visiting
charities and attending dinners, which she says is a ‘huge honour’.
Every Christmas, Eleanor invites 80 local children to tea: if she did
not, she would be ‘in trouble. It’s a very small community and
West Highlanders are brilliant. I walk down to the supermarket and
have a chat and walk back home again just like everybody else.’
Judith today
THE DUCHESS OF
SOMERSET
Judith-Rose Hull
married John, Lord Seymour, in 1978. John became the 19th Duke of
Somerset in 1984 and is descended from Edward Seymour, brother of
Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry VIII. They live at Bradley House in
Wiltshire, which contains 500 years of Seymour memorabilia, and own
another estate in Devon.
Judith-Rose is not
one to seek the spotlight. She prefers to focus on others and the
causes with which she is involved. ‘I haven’t done one public
engagement without coming back inspired. But it’s a difficult role
sometimes. There are people who seem to feel resentful that you’ve
got something they haven’t. That’s hard. I say to the children:
“I’m proud to have married Daddy, proud to be part of his family,
which is part of English history.’’’ Instead of being negative,
she suggests people should remember her title is historical, not
personal. ‘I’m very keen on the monarchy. It may be an
old-fashioned thing
to say, but it should remain.’
She became the
Duchess of Somerset at 32, younger than she had expected, in 1984. ‘I
remember so clearly the night John’s father died. We went back home
and as I looked at my son asleep in his cot, I thought: “Oh dear,
what’s this going to be like?” Two daughters and another son
arrived between 1987 and 1992. ‘I’d be seen opening fêtes with
my hat askew with four children and a pram. That doesn’t happen any
more. They go for football stars now. My workload has reduced
considerably.’
‘It’s a
difficult role sometimes, but I’m proud to be part of this family’
However, she is very
involved in schools – ‘I love young people and I do a lot with
them’ – particularly the primary school in Devon that her
youngest son Charles attended. On her first school visit, ‘They
were expecting me to turn up in my tiara and my dress: “She hasn’t
got a tiara!” There’s a much more glamorous duchess now – the
Duchess of Cambridge.’
'I want to make the
houses we are responsible for relevant to today'
THE DUCHESS OF
BUCCLEUCH
Lady Elizabeth Kerr
(right), a former journalist, married Richard, Earl of Dalkeith, a
direct descendant of King Charles II, in 1981. Richard became the
10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke
of Queensberry in
2007. They divide their time between Boughton House in
Northamptonshire, and Drumlanrig Castle and Bowhill House in
Scotland.
Lady Elizabeth was
apprehensive about following in the footsteps of her mother-in-law
Jane, who was ‘the epitome of a kind and innovative duchess. What
I’ve tried to do,’ she says, ‘is form it in the way that feels
best for me.
‘I knew I had to
make the houses we were responsible for relevant to today and nurture
my children [she has two sons and two daughters] into roles they were
nervous about. They’ve been brought up in this century and are very
un-grand.’
The three houses,
all of which are open to the public, contain important art
collections, including works by Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Van Dyck,
and are ‘owned in trust – we couldn’t sell even if we wanted
to. My vision is that Bowhill will become a literary centre. Sir
Walter Scott, a kinsman, lived close by, and Richard and I sponsor
and I’m a judge on the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.’
For Boughton, Elizabeth hopes to develop a musical theme after
discovering a musical archive there, which she has been cataloguing
with friends.
THE DUCHESS OF
RUTLAND
Emma Watkins
(below), who trained as an opera singer before setting up an interior
design business, married David, Marquess of Granby, in 1992. David
became the 11th Duke of Rutland in January 1999, a title created by
Henry VIII in 1525. They live at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire.
Becoming a duchess
was a ‘real shock’ for Emma. Her mother-in-law handed her a huge
black box of keys and wished her good luck. ‘There’s no training,
no book to read. It’s quite scary becoming a
‘'I’m a Welsh
farmer’s daughter, so when I became a duchess, I thought, “How do
you do it?”’
duchess when you’ve
been a Welsh farmer’s daughter. I thought: “How do you do it?”
You always imagine duchesses to be a bit crusty, living in a tower
and screaming at the staff, but we have a very tight team here and we
all roll up our sleeves.’
Emma wrote for help
to the Duchess of Devonshire who was lauded for having changed the
fortunes of Chatsworth in Derbyshire. ‘She wrote back and said:
“Come and see me and I’ll tell you whatever I can.” I found her
inspiring. The key point that came from that lunch was to let the
estate evolve and to develop it gradually. She was a great help to
me.’
Emma and David, who
have five children, threw their energies into the ailing 15,000-acre
estate, which needed urgent repairs. David also faced death duties of
almost £10 million. The precarious position of the estate when he
inherited it was ‘a bit like the Titanic going towards the
iceberg’. When the recession hit in 2008, Emma noticed they were
losing 70 per cent of the income from their game shoots as corporate
clients could no longer afford the luxury. Something drastic had to
be done. On her parents’ farm, Emma had run the beating line,
flushing out the birds with her spaniel, so she had a little
knowledge of what a shoot was about. She went around the country
studying the role shooting plays in conserving the countryside and in
five years turned Belvoir into one of the best shoots in the country.
Maintenance of the fabric of the castle alone costs £100,000 a year,
which can be met from a good season.
After having three
girls, Emma was aware of the expectations to bear a son. ‘I
remember a woman at a hunting ball coming over to me after Eliza was
born, this wonderful little treasure, commiserating with me as though
there had been a death. She said: “I’m so sorry to hear your
news. I’ll have to give you some tips on how to produce a boy.” I
didn’t understand what she meant because I never questioned that I
wouldn’t.’ Emma went on to give birth to their first son,
Charles, in 1999, and another, Hugo, in 2003.
In early 2012, Emma
and David decided to separate after Emma discovered he was having an
affair. But they both still live in the castle, in different wings,
so that David can have easy contact with the children and for the
practical purpose of running the estate.
‘The key thing in
life is to retain the foundation of who you are. It doesn’t matter
where you go, but to remain grounded about where you’re from.’
Emma is under no illusions about her position in relation to the
estate. ‘This is all a wonderful privilege, to be trying to get the
estate and the land right for the next generation. But I don’t own
any of it.’
Jane Richard married
Lord Ralph George Algernon Percy
Jane Richard (above)
married Lord Ralph George Algernon Percy in 1971, joining a family
that dates back to the ninth century.
Ralph became the
12th Duke of Northumberland in 1995. They live at Alnwick Castle
(left) in Northumberland, the location for Hogwarts in the Harry
Potter films, and own extensive land and property in Scotland and
Surrey.
‘I think I have
been a huge challenge to everyone at Alnwick. I see this as a
positive rather than a negative because I was the first Duchess of
Northumberland who could do all the jobs needed to be done herself.
I’d cooked for 16 years, I’d run a house, I’d gardened, we’d
brought up four children [two sons and two daughters] and I wasn’t
someone who needed to be told what to do. If you are married to a
duke you have to develop a thick skin.’
Restless in her new
role, she had to find her own niche. Ralph’s suggestion she restore
Alnwick Castle’s derelict garden led to creating a new one. Today,
many community project groups are involved with and helped by the
garden. There is also the famous Poison Garden, which inspired Jane
to write a series of books called The Poison Diaries. They are just
one of the businesses she has started, which include a clothing range
and a collection of saucy-sounding cocktails. Jane and Ralph are also
patrons of more than 160 charities, but ‘the castle is what it’s
all about. It’s important not to be away too much because
otherwise, like an absentee landlord, it never really works’.
She believes the
title is generally ‘irrelevant. It can open a door, but there are a
lot of people waiting to knock you down when you get through that
door. In today’s world, you’re only as good as what you do, which
is the way it should be. If you do something and you don’t do it
well, whether you’re a duchess or not, you’ve failed.’
This is an
edited extract from Duchesses – Living in 21st Century Britain by
Jane Dismore, which will be published by Blink on Thursday, price
£20. To order a copy with free p&p, go to you-bookshop.co.uk
.webp)
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment