Kate Middleton does have some royalty in her after all–new research shows that she shares an ancestor with Queen Elizabeth’s mother.
Kate and Prince William are going to see the famous Blakiston-Bowes Cabinet when the tour the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Turns out the centuries-old piece, which has the Blakiston and Bowes family crests on its doors, proves the link between Kate and Elizabeth.
The cabinet was created around 1700 to celebrate the wedding between the two biggest families in County Durham – the Blakistons and the Bowes-Lyons.
Sir William Blakiston, of Gibside Hall, near Gateshead, is the common ancestor that the Duchess and the Queen Mother share, art historian Michael Reed says. Elizabeth, Sir William’s great granddaughter, married into the Bowes-Lyon family.
“It makes sense that Kate wore the Queen Mother’s tiara when she married Prince William–both women share a great deal, Durham ancestry, the vast Gibside Estate and the same famous cabinet,” Reed said in a statement.
Reed also explained that his research shows the Blakiston Baronets and the Baronets of Conyers of Hordern, Kate’s ancestors, were the wealthiest landowners in Northern England.
They married into the Bowes-Lyon family so the families could share each others’ vast coal estates.
Weardale Royalist Anita Atkinson said the discovery was not actually surprising, especially since there was a strong connection with The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle.
“It does not surprise me at all because when Kate married William, I hoped that she would take County Durham from where the Queen Mother left it because each member of the Royal family used to have their own area and when the Queen Mother was alive she was always here,” she said.
“Of course we have to remember that the Queen Mother was not royal, she was only a member of the Royal family because she married a prince, but if we look at the ancestry of the Royal family we would see that they were intermarried all the time.”
