Strange but true: Kate Middleton and classic novelist Jane Austen are distant cousins.
“… a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife,” wrote Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. And oh, how true those words rang centuries later for distant cousin Catherine Middleton.
According to TIME Magazine:
Their common ancestor? That would be a certain Henry Percy, who was the 2nd Earl of Northumberland in the first half of the 15th century. Percy is Kate’s 16th great-grandfather and Austen’s 10th great-grandfather, making them – but of course! – 11th cousins, six times removed.
Appropriately, Jane Austen’s novels feature strong female main characters, and all of her books are about romances between different British social classes. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility both feature, as main characters, women who are in financial distress. These women struggle with the notion of marriage as a way of climbing out of their financial troubles.
The novel Emma also has a strong female lead character, but in contrast to the female leads of the other books, Emma is financially well-off, but doesn’t believe she can find love. The popular movie Clueless with Alicia Silverstone is based on Emma.
What a perfect cousin — someone transfixed by strong women, romance and social class — to precede Catherine Middleton.
