The Duke of Westminster is marrying Olivia Henson today at Chester Cathedral. The Prince of Wales is acting as one of the duke’s ushers.
Crowds lined the streets of Chester to cheer the arrival of the duke, his bride with her father, and the Prince of Wales. Princess Eugenie, Mrs Jack Brooksbank is one of the 400 guests.
The bride looked magnificent in a gown by London-based designer Emma Victoria Payne and she completed her bridal look with the Faberge Myrtle Leaf Tiara, one that Grosvenor brides wear on their wedding day. Olivia was wearing blue velvet shoes - 'something borrowed and something blue'.
A spokesman for the duke said: “The Duke and Miss Henson have taken a great deal of care in planning the wedding, putting their own personal stamp on all the arrangements and have made a conscious effort to involve local and regional suppliers in several aspects of the day.”
While the Prince of Wales is playing a key role in today's event, the majority of the Royal Family will miss the big day. The King and Queen have been in Normandy for the events surrounding 80th anniversary of D-Day. His brother the Duke of Sussex is not in Chester, with mixed reporting on whether he actually got an invitation or not. The wedding comes amid a long-running rift between the princes.
The Duke is one of Britain’s wealthiest men, with his calculated wealth of just over £9.7 billion putting him 13th on the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List. Once considered one of the country's most eligible bachelors.
The couple are surprisingly low-key, and have released just one photograph of themselves together - until now. On 7 May, exactly one month before the nuptials took place, the duke and his bride-to-be visited a number of charities in Chester to see the projects that his organisation, the Westminster Foundation, is funding.
The young duke is a fourth cousin once removed of the King. They both have Romanov blood, the duke via his mother Natalia, and the King via the late Prince Philip's Romanov descent.
A spokesperson for the Duke and Miss Henson said: “The couple have chosen the cathedral for both its beauty and long association with the Grosvenor family, including to the Duke personally. Cheshire is the Grosvenor family’s ancestral home and as Miss Henson’s connection to the region continues to grow, they are keen to plan their wedding there.”
The duke's parents, the 6th Duke and Natalia Phillips married at Chester Cathedral, 7 October, 1978, and the Royal Family were there to celebrate the union of one of Britain's wealthiest men and Natalia, daughter of one of Queen Elizabeth II's great friends, the former Georgina Wernher. The duke's aunt, Lady Leonora Grosvenor, married the late 5th Earl of Lichfield at the cathedral, 8 March, 1975, and another aunt, Lady Jane Grosvenor married the 10th Duke of Roxburghe there, 10 September, 1977.
"The Duke and Miss Henson became engaged at Eaton Hall in April 2023, and have been incredibly grateful for the warm messages of congratulations they have received since then."
One of Britain’s wealthiest men, certainly our richest duke, 33, is godfather to Prince George of Wales, and a close confidante of the Prince and Princess of Wales. He was born 29 January, 1991, the only son of the 6th duke (1951-2016).
Hugh Richard Louis Grosvenor, the 7th duke, inherited the Eaton Hall estate near Chester, and large land holdings in London, Lancashire, Scotland, and in Canada, on the death of his late father, who died suddenly on his Abbeystead estate in Lancashire, 9 August 2016. The Westminster fortune is estimated to stand at 9.46 billion.
The duke’s mother, the former Natalia Ayesha Phillips (born 8 May 1959), descended from the Russia tsars and from Pushkin, is a granddaughter of Lady Zia Wernher, of Luton Hoo, a great friend of the late Queen Elizabeth II. It was at Luton Hoo where the late Queen and her consort spent many wedding anniversaries in the lifetime of Lady Zia, who died in 1977, and her husband Harold, who died in 1973.
The Duke was present at the Coronation of the King and Queen in May last year, and he carried a standard in the procession into Westminster Abbey.
The duke has three sisters, Lady Tamara van Cutsem (born 20 Dec 1979), wife of another of the King’s godsons, Edward van Cutsem, and Lady Edwina Snow (born 4 Nov, 1981), a criminologist, wife of historian and broadcaster Dan Snow, and Lady Viola Roberts (born 9 Oct, 1992), wife of Dragoon Guards officer, Angus Roberts.
Their is no heir to the dukedom, and a son and heir would secure the peerage and the vast Grosvenor inheritance.
The dukedom of Westminster was the last dukedom to be given outside the confines of the royal family, and was created by Queen Victoria in 1874.
The new duchess (born 1 Sept, 1992), is a senior account manager with Belazu, an ethical food company, in London. She is extremely well connected, with lines of descent from the Hoare banking dynasty, the Marquesses of Britsol, of Ickworth, Suffolk, and the Dukes of Rutland, of Belvoir Castle. She is the elder daughter of Mr Rupert Cornelius Brooke Henson (born 7 September, 1962), of Longworth, Oxfordshire, and his wife the former Caroline Belinda Frisby (born 17 August, 1963), scion of that landed gentry family, descended from the Hoare banking family and the Marquesses of Bristol. Olivia’s uncle, Charles Wolrige Gordon, is the Grand Master of Scottish freemasons, Scotland’s senior freemason. Olivia’s mother is the twin sister of Charles’s wife, Angela Clare Wolrige Gordon.
Olivia has a brother Jasper (born 1994), who announced his engagement last year to the Spanish aristocrat Isabel Rodriguez-Legorburu Cabrera Kabana, and a sister, Emilia (born 1997).
Olivia is a granddaughter paternally of Thomas John Brooke Henson, MC (1931-2024), and his first wife the former Jennifer Caswell Cornelius (born 1938), daughter of Leonard Raymond Cornelius (1907-88), and his wife the former Betty Kathleen Caswell (1916-2010). Her grandparents divorced and in 1983 Mrs Jennifer Henson married Robert Christopher Thoroton Hildyard (1912-86), scion of a Yorkshire landed gentry family, descended from the Foljambe Earls of Liverpool.
The Romanov link:-
Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia (1796-1855) > Grand Duke Michael of Russia (1832-1909) > Grand Duke Michael of Russia (1861-1929) > Lady Zia Wernher (1892-1977) > Georgina Wernher (1919-2011) > Natalia Ayesha Phillips (b 1959), The 7th Duke of Westminster (b 1991)
Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia (1796-1855) > Grand Duke Constantine of Russia (1827-1892) > Grand Duchess Olga of Russia (1851-1926) > Prince Andrew of Greece (1882-1944) > Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021) > King Charles III (b 1948)
Olivia is also descended from the Dukes of Rutland :-
The 5th Duke of Rutland > Lady Katherine Manners > Lord Augustus Henry Charles Hervey > Lady Geraldine Mariana Hervey > Angela Beryl Hoare > Simon Rollo Frisby > Caroline Belinda Frisby > Olivia Grace Henson
Olivia's descent from the Marquesses of Bristol-
Frederick, 2nd Marquess of Bristol > Lord Augustus Henry Charles Hervey >Lady Geraldine Hervey > Angela Beryl Hoare > Simon Frisby . Caroline Frisby > Olivia Grace Henson
The Duke and Olivia are both 6x great grandchildren of the 5th Earl of Carlisle (making them 7th cousins) and 7x great grandchildren of the 4th Duke of Beaufort (making them 8th cousins).
Olivia is a great-great granddaughter of Henry Hoare (1866-1956), partner in the eponymous family concern - Hoare's Bank, of Ellisfield Manor, Basingstoke, White Wings, Angmering, Sussex, and La Lucretola, Lago di Como, Italy. The Old Etonian died 29 July, 1956.
Olivia's descent from the Arbuthnot baronets:--
Sir William Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet (1766-1829) > John Alves Arbuthnot (1802-75) > William Arbuthnot (1833-96) > Alice Arbuthnot (b 1869) > Capt William Herbert Fox (1901-40) > Sara Fox (d 2018) > Caroline Frisby (b 1963) > Olivia Henson (b 1992)
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