Duke of Westminster

a bit dramatic? Yeah, no, I was really thinking about the evolution.

I've seen a lot, like I've been exposed that the company's been through massive changes since we were UK owned by the Duke of Westminster.

We're now owned by Sex and Technologies, one of the biggest genetics and sex semen technology companies in the world, if not the biggest.

No, the

Chester.

On the Duke State still.

So we were owned by the Duke of Westminster.

Yeah.

Um, and their argument actually is that property values in the long run, and they're really taking a long run point of view, like they're not owning this for 20 years.

Like this is, this is something that will be handed down to future Dukes of Westminster.

And, um, and they argue that in the long run, property prices can't increase at a rate greater than incomes.

And if we think about it, if, if you are, we'll say a doctor, and you buy a house, the kind of house that a doctor would live in, and in, uh, you know, in, in, you live there for, for 50 years, and when you go to sell it, maybe it's still the kind of house that a doctor would choose to live in, and so you'll sell it to another doctor.

In 1923 she gained entry into the highest levels of British society.

Through these connections, she became acquainted with influential figures such as Winston Churchill, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Westminster, one of the richest men in Britain.

The Duke and Chanel began a long relationship that lasted for years.

When later asked why she had never married him, Chanel reportedly replied, There have been several duchesses of Westminster.

Despite her efforts, control of Parfums Chanel remained beyond her reach.

During the war, she worked with the German intelligence and participated in operations connected to the Nazi security apparatus.

Declassified documents later identified Chanel under the codename Westminster, a reference to her former relationship with the Duke of Westminster.

One of the most remarkable episodes occurred in 1943.

And so it was his way of making sure that his mother was recognized.

Earl Grosvenor, 22, is the son of the Duke of Westminster.

The Grosvenor family friendship spans decades with the royal family.

Um, Hugh is the heir to a vast estate and, um, and a good friend who's been welcomed into the fold.

I suspect the richer you are, um, the more effort you will make to do it.

I don't think that the new Duke of Westminster paid any did he after inheriting one of the biggest fortunes in the country from his late father.

And, and it is, it is less than, according to the official figures, it's less than five percent of the population, and yet I'm fairly confident that the emotional reaction you had was real and significant.

I, I like this as a, as a conversation for us to have because I, I, I don't know whether it's self-interest that is driving my interest in the, in, in the issue or whether it's a, it's a sort of natural justice.

If, if I was a farmer, um, that wouldn't be the case.

No.

If, if I was the Duke of Westminster, that certainly wouldn't be the case.

So I think that-

It was they who set taste, defined the culture, and were the ones who socially mattered.

Yet, with only a few exceptions, such as the Grosvenors, the famed Dukes of Westminster, Their decline was very real and extremely fast.

The story of their decline is primarily political and economic, though their fall from social prominence was immense and notable.

It was largely a result of political change bringing economic catastrophe.

End quote.

In contrast, those families that were willing to treat land, country homes, estate businesses, and all the rest as assets meant to deliver an income, were generally able to muddle their way through even the worst periods of extortionate taxation, so long as they structured things well and invested prudently.

The Grosvenors, the Dukes of Westminster, are the case in point for this because they did it the best, but there are others, both Gentry and Grandes, that did remarkably well.

Ironically, as is covered in a really good paper called Trajectories of Aristocratic Wealth that I believe was produced or at least released by Cambridge.

It's Christmas.

She goes to a party and she meets the Duke of Westminster.

His name is Hugh Grosvenor.

He was born in 1899.

bender from what's the the where the teens had the detention i can't think in the 80s movie with anthony michael hall

yes and there was

your breakfast club so ben duke of westminster is richest man in europe at this time she's made and she's incredibly wealthy he falls in love with chanel even though she's 40 and she's looking a good 70 doesn't she

smoke like yeah oh yeah she smoked a

We're just a most pleasant party.

Anyway, the first Duke of Westminster, speaking of highfalutin, was so frustrated when he was redecorating his house, Eaton Hall, that he asked Gertrude, as a person with an eye and a commanding manner, can you please come oversee this whole project? Like, would you please be the final arbiter of taste and schedule and everything? Because these people are arguing and he is pulling his hair out by the roots.

Like, can you please be my contractor? And she said, absolutely.

Anyway, we just want to say that people high in the arts and crafts movement and the social strata recognize Gertrude Jekyll as a master long before her second career as a garden designer.