Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, who died on 4 September aged 92, was the first senior member of the British royal family to convert to Catholicism since Princess Ena of Battenberg – a granddaughter of Queen Victoria through Princess Beatrice – married the Spanish Alonso XIII in 1906.
As his wife only became a Catholic 33 years after their wedding, the Duke of Kent retained his place in the line of succession, unaffected by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772. In 2001, their son Lord Nicholas Windsor also converted; their grandchildren Lord Downpatrick and Lady Marina Windsor followed in 2003 and 2008. This time round, then, on 16 September, the sacred rites of a royal funeral fell to the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
