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One of Britain’s wealthiest landowners, who owned large parts of Wales, has died.

David Somerset, the 11th Duke of Beaufort, passed away peacefully at his Badminton House on his Gloucestershire estate aged 89.

The old Etonian, a fifth cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, leaves behind an estimated £315m fortune including the 52,000-acre Badminton Estate, home of the famous horse trials and the place where the game of badminton was invented in 1863.

In Wales he owned land including part of the River Tawe in Swansea, an upland common called Mynydd y Gwair, and land where the Circuit of Wales had been planned.

In 2009, it emerged Swansea had paid Beaufort - whose name is David Somerset - more than £280,000 for permission to build a 70ft long bridge across the river Tawe near the Liberty Stadium.

(Image: Richard Williams)

On another piece of land he owned, plans emerged well over 10 years ago for a 16-turbine wind farm on the upland common of Mynydd y Gwair.

Plans to build the wind farm were approved by the Welsh Government in 2016. Swansea council originally granted planning permission for the wind farm in 2013.

The turbines, which are currently being erected despite a sustained campaign of opposition, were said to generate millions for the Somerset Trust, which runs his estate. A spokesman for the estate, however, had insisted the Duke would not gain personally from the wind farm.

The plans have been opposed by the Save Our Common Mountain Environment group, which received backing from Welsh diamond tycoon Grenville Thomas, who grew up in a council house in Swansea's crowded Clase housing estate and donated a "four-figure sum" to their cause.

The Duke also owned land earmarked for the controversial Circuit of Wales racetrack plan, now dead in the water.

At the time, it was said: “The plan is to build the track and other commercial elements on 850 acres of land owned by the Duke of Beaufort.

“In its current state as moorland, the land is worth very little – around £100 an acre. But if it is sold for development its value will increase dramatically, and the Duke would stand to get millions of pounds for it.”

Other interests in Wales saw the former lieutenant of the Coldstream Guards handed the office of Hereditary Keeper of Raglan Castle.

The late Duke, who leaves wife Miranda, and four children, Harry, Anne, Edward and John, is succeeded by his eldest son Harry, the Marquess of Worcester.