Death of Dowager Duchess

The Dowager Duchess of Rutland, Frances Helen Manners, has died at Belvoir Castle. She was 86

She was the widow of Charles Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland, who died in 1999.

Born Frances Helen Sweeny in 1937 in Marylebone Lane, London, to American amateur golfer, socialite and businessman Charles Francis Sweeny and his wife, Scottish debutante Margaret Whigham.

Her mother had suffered eight miscarriages and given birth to a stillborn daughter prior to her birth. She was baptised in the Roman Catholic Church and was at one time a regular at St Mary’s, Grantham.

Her parents divorced in 1947 and her mother subsequently married the 11th Duke of Argyll in 1951.

On 15 May 1958, Sweeny married Charles Manners, 10th Duke of Rutland at Caxton Hall. They had four children including the current Duke, David Charles Robert Manners.

She was a very keen breeder of Arabian horses, following a family tradition whereby the 4th Duke of Rutland owned Black Hearty stallion which was the grandsire of the Duke of Wellington’s famed charger Copenhagen.

On the death of her husband she became the Dowager Duchess and moved from the Castle to a house across the road.

Her mother had first dazzled London society in 1930 when she was named debutante of the year and inspired the original lyrics to Cole Porter’s You’re the Top.

But following a subsequent marriage which made her Duchess of Argyll, she became notorious when the Duke petitioned for divorce, citing four alleged lovers and produced the infamous ‘headless man’ photographs, showing a faceless figure naked with her.