Royal wedding: William and Kate's inner circle
The close friends who made Prince William's wedding to Kate Middleton a personal affair rather than a stuffy, state occasion can now be revealed.
8:15AM BST 08 May 2011
98 CommentsWhile politicians and foreign dignitaries were out in force at Westminster Abbey for the Royal wedding between Prince William and his bride Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will have been most thrilled by those who had gathered in Statesmen's Aisle in the abbey's north transept to see them marry.
This was the space, overlooked by statues of Disraeli, Gladstone and Palmerstone, reserved for some of the couple's closest friends.
Valued for their loyalty and discretion, they include childhood friends, and confidantes from school and university.
Also among them were long-time friends of the Royal family, wealthy landowners and aristocrats who have known Prince William all his life, together with the mentors who helped him cope with his mother's death and saw his bride transformed from commoner to future Queen.
The friends have remained low-key throughout the couple's romance, but the jigsaw of who's who within the Duke and Duchess's inner circle can now be revealed.
THE GLOUCESTERSHIRE SET
Friends of the Prince's from his home county of Gloucestershire, who have been entertained at Highgrove, the Prince of Wales's country estate, were well represented.
Known as the "Glosse Posse", its most glamorous member is Arabella Musgrave, 28, said to have been a former flame of Prince William and once described as "the only woman who could make Kate Middleton" jealous.
Now head of PR at Gucci, Miss Musgrave met the Prince through friends at the Cirencester Park Polo Club, run by her father Major Nick Musgrave, an old friend of the Prince of Wales.
A regular on the London party scene, until recently she dated James Tollemache.
Seated in front of Miss Musgrave is Lady Natasha Rufus Isaacs. Known as "Nats" to friends, she met Prince William while attending Westonbirt School, which is close to Highgrove.
Lady Natasha, 27, sat on Prince William's table at his "Out of Africa"-themed 21st birthday at Windsor Castle. The daughter of the Marquess of Reading and older sister of Julian, Viscount Erleigh, she is also one of Prince Harry's best friends.
Lady Natasha runs the fashion label Beulah, selling clothes made by women who have escaped the sex trade in India, of which her grandfather was viceroy in the 1920s.
She dates Rupert Finch, a former boyfriend of the Duchess of Cambridge. Described as "affable" and "handsome", Mr Finch, 32, was a final year law student at St Andrews University when Kate arrived to study History of Art in 2001. The couple dated for less than a year. Some have suggested that Prince William "stole" his future bride from Mr Finch, but others insist that the relationship had run its course. He is now an employment lawyer in London.
Tom and Victoria Inskip - "Skippy" and "Tor" to friends - have known Princes William and Harry since childhood. Mr Inskip, 26, attended Eton with the Princes and helped to organise his stag party with Guy Pelly, the nightclub entrepreneur who was sat elsewhere in the abbey.
Miss Inskip, 27, who also attended Westonbirt, is the best friend of Prince William's first serious girlfriend Rose Farquhar. A Chelsea-based estate agent, she is also friends with Prince Harry. The Inskips were regulars at "Club H", the nightclub William and Harry set up in the basement of Highgrove,
She has also been a fundraiser for Sentebale, the African charity set up by Prince Harry. Claire Inskip, their mother, is a sculptress.
Seated next to Mrs Inskip, is Jamie Murray-Wells, an old Harrovian childhood friend of Prince William from Gloucestershire.
Mr Murray-Wells, 27, is the son of Simon Murray-Wells, an investment analyst, and his wife Alison, who are close friends of the Inskips.
Mr Murray-Wells is believed to be a multi-millionaire after founding Glasses Direct - selling cheap spectacles online - during his final term at University of Bristol in 2004.
Renowned for his sense of humour, he once reportedly sent sheep into Specsavers stores in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to illustrate his belief that customers were being "fleeced".
In a prank in 2006, he and Mr Pelly, raided Westonbirt School in a hunt for girls (the school was empty at the time), with Mr Murray-Wells falling from a wall and breaking his leg.
He showed loyalty to the Duchess during her brief split with Prince William in 2007, escorting her to nightclubs.
FRIENDS FROM SCHOOL AND UNIVERSITY DAYS
Seated beneath the statue of Benjamin Disraeli are Sir Henry and Lady Cheape. Sir Henry, a landowner educated at Harrow and Newcastle University, and distant cousin of the Prince, rented Balgove House to the couple during their third year at university, where their romance was allowed to flourish away from scrutiny.
At the other end of the row from Sir Henry and his wife, Louisa, is Will Matthews, another old Harrovian. Known to his friends as "Stan", he lives in Fulham, where many of the couple's set have their London bases.
Mr Matthews is an associate in the country house sales department at Knight Frank, the estate agents and close friends with Rory Penn(seated beside him with his wife Francesca Penn) and Sir Henry.
All three attended Newcastle University, together with James Meade, Prince William's closest friend who, with Thomas van Straubenzee, delivered a joint best man speech.
Mr Penn, 30, is a City fund manager and a descendant of Sir Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, the Queen Mother's father.
Another of his friends, who was at Harrow while Prince William was at Eton, is Bear Maclean. An estate agent, who lives in Fulham, he fought as amateur boxer at the Boodles charity boxing ball in 2008, to raise money for Starlight, a children's charity championed by the Duchess.
One row back is Hattie Stead, a close friend of Prince William's who shared a flat at Newcastle University with Mr Meade and Mr van Straubenzee.
Educated at Tudor Hall, an elite boarding school, Miss Stead is also a friend of Annabel Ballin, the fiancee of jockey Sam Waley-Cohen. Together with Miss Ballin, she runs Hats and Bells party planners.
Anna Smith (nee Sloan) and her husband Eddie, attended Edinburgh University while Prince William was at St Andrews, and Anna was rumoured to be one of the Prince's former love interests.
In 2004, Prince William visited Mrs Smith, a Texan heiress, for a week's holiday on her ranch in Tennessee.
Together with Emilia d'Erlanger, one of the Duchess's best friends from Marlborough College, Mrs Smith established an interior design business, d'Erlanger and Sloan.
Alice St John Webster is a friend of the Duchess, and her sister Pippa, from Marlborough College. She is also close friend of Mr Pelly and Alicia Fox-Pitt, the Duchess's best friend from Marlborough.
DASHING LANDOWNERS
Seated beside Miss Musgrave is Arthur Landon, 29, one of Britain's richest young men with a fortune estimated at up to £500 million.
He inherited his wealth in 2007 following the death of his father Brigadier Tim Landon, an adventurer and arms dealer known as the "White Sultan" for his dealings in the Middle East.
Educated at Ampleforth and Bristol University, Mr Landon, a film-maker and model, has assets including the Hampshire hamlet of Faccombe and 11,000 acres of grouse moor in Scotland and North Yorkshire.
When in London, he is often spotted at nightclubs Public, Boujis and Whisky Mist. Seated next to his mother, the Austro-Hungarian Princess Katalina Esterhazy de Galantha, Mr Landon is said to be dating Charlotte Cowen, a make-up artist and best friend of Miss Musgrave.
Behind Mr Landon are George and Candida Meyrick. The eldest son and heir of Anglesey, Hampshire and Dorset landowners, Sir George and Lady Meyrick, Mr Meyrick, 40, is a great grandson of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch. His wife Candida (nee Clark), 40, is an author and screenwriter. The family has its own racetrack in Anglesey. Prince William is said to enjoy riding his Ducati motorbike around the island, where he works as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.
Ed Milbank, 38, educated at Eton and Newcastle University, is the heir to Sir Anthony Milbank, a farmer and owner of the 6,500-acre Barningham Park estate in North Yorkshire.
Mr Milbank is the founder of MPF Investments, which develops property in Montenegro. His wife, Natalie, 32, is the daughter of Major Martin Hicks-Löbbecke, and has known Prince William through mutual Gloucestershire friends for many years.
After studying at Bristol University, she worked as a security consultant in Iraq. The couple divide their time between a beach house in Montenegro and a flat in Chelsea.
Also in the congregation is David, Viscount Marsham, 34, a former major in the Scots guards, and the son and heir of the Earl of Romney.
Across the aisle is Oliver Jones-Davies, 39, whose family are from Hexham, Northumberland and are friends of the Duke of Northumberland.
OLD FRIENDS OF THE FAMILY
Hugh and Emilie van Cutsem, Norfolk landowners and bloodstock breeders, are close friends of the Prince of Wales. Their friendship was tested by a row over the seating plan for the wedding of their eldest son, Edward, Prince Charles' godson, in 2004, when it emerged that he and Camilla Parker Bowles were due to sit separately at the service. The couple did not attend.
Princes William Harry attended as ushers and the rift has since been healed. The couple have four sons, Edward, Hugh, Nicholas and William, and all guests at the wedding.
Geoffrey van Cutsem, the former chairman of Savills, and brother of Hugh van Cutsem, is also a friend of Prince Charles.
Lord and Lady Vestey are friends of the Queen. Lord Vestey, 70, is one of Britain's richest men with an estimated wealth of around £750 million from meat trading. He recently retired from his post as chairman of Cheltenham racecourse and is a close friend of Prince Charles. Lady Vestey is Prince Harry's godmother.
The Duke and Duchess of Northumberland seated at the back, reside at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, which doubles as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films.
Ralph Percy, 54, and Jane, 52, worth £315 million, have four children, including the Duke's heir, George, Earl Percy, who shared a house with Pippa Middleton at Edinburgh University.
The Earl and Countess of Dalhousie own the 55,000 acre Dalhousie estates in Angus, Scotland.
Close by are Edwina Palmer and her cousin James Palmer. Edwina is the daughter of Lord Palmer, scion of the Huntley & Palmers biscuit family and a hereditary peer. Miss Palmer is engaged to Andrew Charlton, a property broker who was with Prince William at Ludgrove prep school and later in the same house at Eton.
THE MENTORS
Captain Mark Dyer, 43, a former Royal Equerry and Welsh Guards officer, acted as mentor and aide to Princes William and Harry. He accompanied Prince William on his gap year, and now runs a chain of gastro pubs and bars. He once dated Tiggy Pettifer (nee Legge-Bourke, just out of shot), Prince Charles's former personal assistant and close friend of the Princes, whose son, Tom, was a page boy at the wedding.
Sir David Manning, 61, the former British ambassador to Washington and foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair, was enlisted to provide "advice and mentoring" to Kate Middleton following her engagement.
Sir David was appointed as an adviser to Princes William and Harry in 2009 at the request of the Queen. He accompanied Prince William on his first solo foreign tour last year to Australia and New Zealand.
FAMILY TIES
Harry and Laura Lopes are seated at the front. Mrs Lopes, 33, is the daughter of the Duchess of Cornwall and her first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, and a step-sister to Prince William. She attended a "girls' lunch" with her mother and the Duchess of Cambridge shortly before the wedding.
Old Etonian Mr Lopes, 33, is the heir to estates in Devon and the Highlands. Their daughter, Eliza, three, was a bridesmaid at the wedding.
Across the aisle sits Lady Kitty Spencer, a cousin of Prince William, and the eldest daughter of Earl Spencer, the brother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Additional reporting Ben Leach, Rebecca Lefort, Alastair Jamieson, Eleanor Davis and David Drummond
