THE DUCHESS OF RUTLAND

An Accidental DUCHESS

In a brand new autobiography, Her Grace the Duchess of Rutland, Emma Manners, reveals why becoming an accidental Duchess wasn’t always an easy path to take. However, her love of family, her desire to care of her five children and the respect she and the 11th Duke have for preserving the Belvoir Estate for future generations all add up to a story that’s a fascinating insight into aristocracy...

UPON WALKING INTO THE GUARDROOM of Belvoir Castle, your shoes clack against the flagstones on the floor. It’s not an echo, per se, nor is it an especially loud sound. More of a small sound, close to you. It’s noticeable against the vast environment of the castle’s large rooms and soaring ceilings. Noticeable, too, against what is otherwise silence given the acoustically insulatory thick stone walls of a castle which is also located in an elevated position, surrounded by vast swathes of countryside in the Vale of Belvoir. It makes you feel comparatively small, and quite isolated. More so, I imagine, if you’re walking in knowing that from now on, the preservation, the future of the building, is down to you and you alone. That’s what happened when Welsh farmer’s daughter Emma Manners, the current Duchess of Rutland, moved into Belvoir Castle in 2001 with her husband David –His Grace, the Duke of Rutland – and three of their five children, including the Marquess of Granby – heir apparent of the Duke of Rutland peerage. Emma – Her Grace – is now separated from The Duke, maritally, but maintains a good relationship, one which has evolved really well, she says. Describing herself as an accidental Duchess, in her new book she describes the journey from Powys to Duchess... and it’s a fascinating story. It’s little wonder that Emma wanted to fill the vastness of the castle with the noise, chaos and joy that only a family can bring to a house, turning it into a home. The future Duchess grew up in the Welsh Marches, in a farmhouse in the former soke of Radnorshire, now incorporated into Powys. She was the only daughter of John and Roma Watkins, until her two younger brothers, William and Roger, arrived. The family were farmers by profession and so Emma’s childhood was a coalescence of trees, grass, cows, shooting, horses, a few more horses and perhaps the odd additional horse or two.

After Croftdown and Ellerslie schools, the budding – and evidently talented – 16-year old future Duchess obtained a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Dance in London, deferring her placement until 18 as John was adamant that 16 was too young for his only daughter to live alone in London. Moving in with her childhood friend Louise the two shared a flat on the Brompton Road, between Harrods and the Natural History Museum.

After music and drama college, a stint working as a nanny for a wealthy Argentinian family, acceptance into Southampton College of Higher Education to study land management, and a few ski seasons working as a

BELVOIR CASTLE: A Brief History...

The first Belvoir Castle was located in what was known as the wapentake of Framland, spanning about a quarter of Leicestershire. A Norman fortification was created by Robert de Todeni, and when the subsequent de Ros line died out, the estate and its manor passed to George Manners, 11th Baron de Ros. Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland started construction of a new castle. It was completed in 1555 from stone which came from Croxton Abbey and Belvoir Priory following their dissolution. In 1649, the castle was destroyed by Parliamentarians and a new building was started in 1654, created by the architect John Webb. Work was completed by 1668 and the castle cost £11,730 (£2.14 million today). In 1799 the 5th Duke’s new wife, Lady Elizabeth Howard, chose architect James Wyatt to rebuild the castle in the romantic Gothic Revival style. Its most recent incarnation was completed in 1832, after a further investment of £82,000 (£8.11 million today). It’s claimed that in 1840, Anna, Duchess of Bedford invented afternoon tea whilst staying at the Castle. More recently the estate is renowned for its game shooting and events. n

Cinderella at Christmas

guide and chalet girl, Emma established an interior design consultancy with a friend, Janet Baker.

It was whilst working in the grand houses of London’s smarter areas like Chelsea that Emma was introduced to her future husband at a dinner party. His card simply read David Manners, Marquis of Granby, registered firearms dealer.

“My brother William was highly suspicious of him,” recalls Emma. “From the business card he thought he owned a pub, and the idea of a pub-owning firearms dealer sounded a little iffy to say the least.”

Nevertheless, the two began to speak on the phone each day and David invited Emma to ‘drop in and have lunch on your way back.’

“His instructions on how to get there were, as usual with David, very precise, and I followed them to the letter. Suddenly, at a break in the trees, I saw this enormous As Pride goes to press, Belvoir the Duchess headed up citadel rising out of the Castle’s interiors will be transformed onto the roof and in a otherwise flat landscape.” by theatre designer Charlotte Lloyd Webber and team for the festive somewhat less than glamorous excerpt from her life, began pulling a couple of dead pigeons out of the lead guttering, 450 feet up in the air, wearing a nightdress and some Barbour wellies. Emma reveals in her new book how soon the realisation dawned that her beau, David was the heir apparent to the title Duke of Rutland. season. The crafted displays will open for Christmas from 18th November, tickets available now. The couple married in 1992 and moved from their Regency cottage on the estate “My husband had inherited a castle, but into the castle in 2001. behind the fairy-tale façade we were faced A Cinderella story, is how The Duchess recalls being awoken, in March 2002, by the children running into the couple’s bedroom by her older girls Violet, Alice and Eliza then eight, six and four, shouting “Mummy! Daddy! Water’s coming in, the castle is with jaw-dropping levels of debt, as well as battalions of rats, and staff who clearly preferred the former incumbents to us and our unruly brood of little people with their high-pitched voices and water pistols,” she acknowledges. flooding!” “As I lay there in bed, willing myself back to Belvoir Castle comprises six towers and well sleep again, the mantle of responsibility over 200 rooms. Surmising that the water that now hung across my shoulders felt only was pouring in from the Bellhangers’ Tower, too real.” >>

>> “Over the following twenty years there would be highs and there would be crushing lows, none of which I could anticipate.” “Soon after the death of the Charles [10th Duke], grey-suited advisers arrived from London with bad news tucked inside their briefcases. Yes, David had inherited Belvoir Castle, but he’d also inherited £11 million worth of inheritance tax.” “It was only a few weeks after Charles’ death that David and I attended our first trustees meeting. At that stage I didn’t even know what a trust was. I remember sitting there in disbelief, thinking, How am I ever going to get my head around this?” “From the little information we had been able to glean, it appeared that the castle’s running costs amounted to roughly half a million pounds a year, and income was now limited to the profits from the home farm, the tenant farm and rents from houses on the estate that were let out. Nonetheless, it was now our responsibility – debts and all.” “What we hadn’t realised was that visitor numbers had been steadily dwindling for years. David and I would lay awake at night worrying.” In 1999, The Duke and Duchess gave birth to their first boy, Charles – now the heir apparent to the Dukedom and to the Castle – but with the pressure of the estate, parenthood and grief over the loss of the 10th Duke taking their toll, The Duchess was forced to confront some painful truths.

“Over the next few months the future of our marriage was up in the air. We tried to work out a way to mend things. I felt utterly helpless and lost. I’d go from hurt to guilt. The word that sums it all up is heartbreak.”

“I loved him and I knew that deep down he loved me. I think I had underestimated the strain that David had been under.”

In May 2009 when the Duke was turning 50, The Duchess organised a grand party for 320 guests, stretching the length of both the State Drawing Room and the Regent’s Gallery, but three years later the couple legally separated. “Slowly our relationship has evolved into one of acceptance, pragmatism and... yes, real friendship,” she says. “All I asked in return was to continue to run the castle and the estate until I retired at sixty-five [in 2028]. David agreed and I was officially appointed CEO. But we carried on living in the castle together.” “I stayed in the nursery wing with the children while David moved into the Shepherd’s Tower, which I had been in the midst of renovating.” Amid the détente The Duchess was desperate to secure Belvoir’s future for her family. Of the 17,000 acres surrounding of the estate, 1,200 acres of it is home farm, and it was losing £350,000 a year. Partnering with Phil Burtt, The Duchess turned around the estate through shooting, tourism, farming and through the Duchess daring to create developments like Belvoir Castle’s Engine Yard which opened in 2018. “There was no acknowledgement, no words spoken between us. But in my head, I realised I was falling in love with Phil. Little by little our feelings for each other deepened.” “If not in the respect of rainwater in lead guttering, then at least in terms of privacy, The Belvoir estate proved surprisingly leakproof, and it was a good ten months on that the Duke and Duchess of Rutland’s living arrangements were first spoken about publicly, whereupon the tabloids sent in their hounds.” The Duchess addressed the rumours by brokering a deal with the Daily Mail in September 2012 clarifying the couple’s personal lives, but then in 2015 the same newspaper ran another story following a party at the Castle for the launch of the Duchess’s Capability Brown landscape restoration claiming ‘uncanny parallels’ to DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley and Mellors. Titles, grand country houses, publicity (good and bad) and castle roofs (mostly bad) remain a source of fascination for anyone unfamiliar with the life of aristocracy, but for the Duchess, there’s a rather strong justification for the life that everyone can relate to; looking after family and preserving Belvoir for the next generation. “My five are now grown up, but I know that at some point they too will have children and the cycle will continue. I have always been someone’s daughter, someone’s wife, someone’s mother. Now, I am looking forward to being someone’s grandmother.” n

READ MORE: The Duchess’s Autobiography...

Emma Manners, Her Grace the Duchess of Rutland has co-written her autobiography with Pepsy Dening. “I didn’t realise there was a story but working with Pepsy made me realise that my life has been an exciting journey, one with tremendous high points, but low points too.” “The Duke and I have a wonderful friendship now, and at times the story has been tough to tell, but it has been very cathartic.” “There’s no point writing an autobiography unless it’s honest. It’s been a great process, and everyone that has read it pre-release has supported it, especially The Duke himself.”

“I want it to shine a light on women in private heritage and to give an insight into how relationships can evolve and change throughout your life.”

The Accidental Duchess by Emma Manners Duchess of Rutland is published by Pan Macmillan, 340 pages, £12.99, available from all good bookshops. n