Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.life From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Lineage includes Richard III Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 15:30:30 EST Message-ID: \SE E;LIFE;ABOUT TOWN \HD Lineage includes Richard III \BY Kevin Chaffee \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, 48, is the second son of the late Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (the younger brother of King George VI and the Duke of Windsor) and a grandson of King George V. He became heir to his title in 1972 when his elder brother, Prince William, was killed in an airplane crash. He succeeded at his father's death in 1974. His mother, Princess Alice, dowager duchess of Gloucester, will be 91 on Christmas Day and, like her sister-in-law, the Queen Mother, is still actively carrying out royal duties. The daughter of the seventh duke of Buccleuch, and a member of Britain's largest (252,000 acres) landholding family, she is believed to be immensely wealthy in her own right. Her fortune was recently estimated at 26.5 million pounds ($44 million) in a report published in the International Express newspaper. While her surviving son may not be one of the best-known members of the royal family, he is thought to be one of its brightest. After graduating from Eton and Magdalen College, Cambridge, he was already well-established as a practicing architect when fate stepped in, compelling him to become a full-time public figure. Prince Richard Alexander Walter George Windsor can trace a tortuous and somewhat indirect path of his descent from another Richard of Gloucester - the evil, ambitious hunchback of Shakespearean fame who later became Richard III. The current Richard of Gloucester provides a stark contrast to images of his medieval namesake. Affectionately known as "Proggy" (Prince Richard of Gloucester) by the other royals, the soft-spoken, scholarly duke's life has been occupied with a succession of official appearances at independence day celebrations of former colonies in behalf of his cousin, Queen Elizabeth II, and as the patron, president or honorary member of several armed services regiments and other organizations of various kinds. As the president of the British Consultants' Bureau, he is especially active in promoting trade. When not on royal duties, the duke is involved with the management of his family's 2,500-acre estate, Barnwell Manor, in Northamptonshire. According to a biography in one royal pedigree book, his high-speed dashes between the magnificent 16th-century home and his grace-and-favour apartments at London's Kensington Palace have, from time to time, attracted a bit of bothersome attention from the motorway police. On other occasions, he has shown up at official functions on a motorcycle, "his high breeding hidden inside the anonymity of a crash helmet." In 1972, the Duke married Birgitta van Deurs, the daughter of a Danish lawyer, whom he met at Cambridge. Their son, the Earl of Ulster, born in 1974, will succeed to the dukedom (but not the title of "royal highness" which is inherited from a reigning monarch for only two generations). They also have two daughters, Lady Davina Windsor (born 1977) and Lady Rose Windsor (born 1980). This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM