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>My grandmother told me we are related to queen Victoria and her cousin Margerite has a painting of a Lord and Lady Bentinck or Bentrick. Also her mother told her this they were very wealthy people. My great great grandmother a Margaretta Bentinck or Beninck.Also she has a silver set that was my great great grandmothers. It has Queen Victorias face on it.Unfortunately she spray painted it silver because she hated to polish it. If anyone knows of this family please write to me. My great grandmother died in 1980 her name was Amiee Miller ,Vanderslice. My grandmother is in her 80s and in the hospital with abroken back.

Hi, Lori.

Victoria, Queen of Great Britain (who reigned from 1838 to 1901), was not related to a Lord or Lady Bentinck (or variations of that name). A quick check of the Earls/Dukes of Portland as seen on the *Burke's Peerage* website does not reveal anyone by the name of "Amiee Miller Vanderslice". Also, there is only woman who went by the Christian name of Margaret in this family, as shown in BP. She was Lady Margaret Cavendish-Bentinck (1918-1955), younger daughter of the 7th Duke of Portland. Lady Margaret was one of Queen Elizabeth's (later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother) trainbearers at the 1937 Coronation.

Hans Willem Bentinck (1649-1709), who was created Earl of Portland in 1689, was a younger son of Bernhard Bentinck, Lord of Diepenheim, Schoonheten, etc..., in the Province of Overyssel, Seneschal or Provost of Deventer, according to *Burke's Peerage* (1999). The Bentinck family, which can trace its ancestry to the 1200s, belonged to the "ancient nobility of the duchy of Guelder in The Netherlands, where at the beginning of the 14th century a castle of Benting or Bentinck, near Gorsel, between Deventer and Zutphen, was in the possession of a knight who seems to have taken his name from that place." (BP:2287).

While no Bentinck (of these Earls of Portland, and subsequent Dukes of Portland) was related to Queen Victoria, members of this family served at Court under various British monarchs beginning with William III, King of England (who reigned from 1689 to 1702). Courtiers can be defined as individuals who hold a high office at a monarch's court or Household. For example, the 1st Earl of Portland (seen above) was a 'confidential advisor' to the future King William III, and was later Groom of the Stole, First Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and Keeper of the Privy Purse. The Earl's first wife, Anne Villiers, was a Maid of Honour to Princess Mary, the future Queen Mary (and wife of King William III), while his second wife, Jane Temple, was governess to the daughters of the future King George II. One illustrious descendant was the 3rd Duke of Portland (great-grandson of the 1st Earl of Portland), who was twice Prime Minister of Great Britain (in the late 1700s and in the early 1800s).

There are, however, some personal connections between members of the Bentinck family and Queen Victoria. For example, Lady Victoria Alexandrina Violet Bentinck (1890-1994), daughter of the 6th Duke of Portland, was a godchild of Queen Victoria. (The Queen was even present at her christening.)

One last thing. The Bentincks might not be related to Queen Victoria, but one branch of the family is related to the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (1900-2002) through her mother Nina Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck (1862-1938). Nina, a great-granddaughter of the 3rd Duke of Portland, married Claude Bowes-Lyon, 12th Earl of Strathmore.

For more information, see *Burke's Peerage & Baronetage*, 106th edition, 1999 (pages 2285-2290), and *The Complete Peerage*, 2nd edition, reprint 2000, Volume X (pages 589-598).