The former Lady Violet Manners, now Viscountess of Garnock, is of the ancient Manners family, who were Earls and then Dukes of Rutland, and whose seat has been Belvoir (pronounced Beaver) Castle from Renaissance times. Lady Violet is the great-granddaughter of the notorious Margaret Whigham Sweeny Campbell, Dowager Duchess of Argyll, by her first husband American Charles Sweeny. From British Vogue:
Lady Violet Manners and Viscount William Garnock met on 30 December 2023, at William’s family home of Kirkcaldy in Scotland. Violet didn’t know him, but she did know William’s sister Charlotte and his brother-in-law, Jamie. The married couple, known as the Duke and Duchess of Noto, extended her an invitation to a New Year’s party at Garnock’s Fife estate. Unbeknownst to Violet, they had a secret agenda: to set her up with William, an eligible yet perennial bachelor. (William, well, was in on it: “I have to admit I knew exactly who she was,” he tells Vogue.)
Their masterplan worked. Violet and William sat next to each other at dinner, where they discovered a litany of things in common: they’d both lived in Los Angeles and India, for example, and had each founded their own companies. (Violet is the founder of HeritageXplore, an online platform that allows users to book tours of some of Britain’s most historic homes, whereas William founded Feragaia, a non-alcoholic spirits company.) “It did – as cheesy as it sounds – feel like we’d met, spoken and known each other for a long time. Lots of teasing and jibbing, which I secretly always enjoy. William made me laugh pretty instantly,” Violet says. Throughout the night, she tried to repress the same thought: “I’m going to marry this man.” Little did she know William was having the exact feeling. “I fell in love with her that first night,” he says.
What followed next can only be described as a whirlwind romance. After six months of long-distance dating – William, at the time, lived in Texas – he asked Violet’s father for her hand in marriage. “I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would meet the man I was going to marry and be engaged to him within six months. I thought that was just for the movies – and to some degree, I still do. But from the moment I met William, I knew,” Violet says of their fast-moving timeline. He proposed over the Fourth of July holiday in the Rocky Mountains, while the couple was offroading near Jefferson, Colorado. (Read more.)
From Tatler:
The cannon smoke has settled over Belvoir Castle after what was surely a candidate for the high society wedding of the year. Lady Violet Manners and Viscount Garnock tied the knot in the church of St Mary the Virgin, Bottesford, over the weekend, before throwing a bash at her family seat. On the guest list? Lady Violet’s parents, the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, the mother and father of the groom, the Earl and Countess of Lindsay, and a host of the great and the gilded from every corner of the British aristocracy. Quite the party – so no wonder the new Viscountess Garnock took the time to send a personal message to her loved ones on Tuesday, taking to her Instagram to reflect on the joys of her big day.
‘A weekend we will cherish forever, surrounded by everyone we love as we said “I do”, Lady Violet wrote in the caption for a photoset with a series of behind-the-scenes snaps from the wedding. ‘Thank you to every single person at Belvoir who worked tirelessly to make it the most perfect celebration, and to my amazing mum and dad for making all my dreams come true.’ (Read more.)
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| Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Argyll and her daughter Frances Sweeny Manners, Duchess of Rutland |
The bride resembles her beautiful grandmother and great-grandmother a great deal. For some reason they are compared to Jackie Kennedy. Jackie was lovely but I do not know how she became the universal standard of beauty for the entire world. Also from Tatler:
Frances Sweeny married Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland, at just 20-years-old. Strikingly stylish with Jackie Kennedy-esque beauty, she caused quite a stir as the youngest Duchess in the country. She hoped, perhaps, that the entrance into this new family and home - the resplendent 365-room Belvoir Castle - would represent a new start. But just five years after her joyous wedding, scandal threatened to engulf her. This time, because of her mother Margaret, Duchess of Argyll’s fractious relationship and separation from her second husband, the 11th Duke of Argyll. We take a look back at the sordid secrets that swirled around her adult life on the one year anniversary of her passing.
Frances and her brother Brian, both products of Margaret’s first marriage to American stockbroker Charles Sweeny, encouraged their mother to walk away from her second relationship without contest. But it seems Margaret was unable to let go, deciding to challenge the Duke in court, to disastrous and very public effect. The story unfurled with Hollywood-style suspense and scandal. Indeed, the events were immortalised by the BBC drama A Very British Scandal in 2021, with star turns from Claire Foy and Paul Bettany. (Read more.)
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