A PROMINENT landowner who owned parts of Gwent and wider Wales has died at the age of 89.

David Somerset, the 11th Duke of Beaufort, died in his sleep at his home at Badminton House on his Gloucestershire estate last week.

The late Duke was a fifth cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II and leaves an estimated fortune of around £135 million.

The 52,000-acre estate in which he died, best-known for hosting the Badminton Horse Trials, is one of several notable properties that he owned.

He also owned 850 acres of land in Ebbw Vale that had been earmarked for the Circuit of Wales project, which was scrapped earlier this year.

A former Eton schoolboy and lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, the Duke also served as the hereditary keeper of the grade I listed Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire.

He leaves a widow, Miranda, and four children in Harry, Anne, Edward and John behind him and he is succeeded by his eldest son Harry, the marquess of Worcester.