Kate Middleton might be a mere commoner, but she has plenty of distinguished relatives in her own right – including authors Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome, and film director Guy Ritchie!

She is known as the first commoner in more than three centuries to marry a future king. Her ancestors include miners, farmers and even the occasional wool merchant.

But Catherine Middleton, 41, has some prominent ancestors and relatives in her own right, even if some are a bit distant.

Her father Michael’s family has intermingled with the royal family since the Victorian era, while her mother Carole is descended from Baron Sir William Blakiston, an ancestor of the Queen Mother.

Her family tree includes children’s authors Beatrix Potter and Arthur Ransome, and film director, producer and screenwriter Guy Ritchie, meaning Kate has both aristocratic blood and connections to Hollywood royalty.

Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (pictured), who would later become the Queen Mother, is a distant relative of Carole Middleton, Kate’s mother

Catherine’s family was wealthier on her father’s side – the Middletons – than her mother’s. Most notably, the Luptons made a fortune in the Yorkshire textile trade, building up their own royal connections. It was a former Lupton mill that the Princess of Wales visited today

The origins of Middleton’s wealth lay in the family textile company William Lupton & Co, founded in 1773 by Kate’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Arthur, who inherited his father’s fabric business.

His grandson Frank – Kate’s great-great-grandfather – transformed the family business and amassed the family wealth: when he died in 1884, he left an estate of 500 acres and £64,650, the equivalent of more than £32 million today.

His wife Fanny was directly descended from Sir Thomas Fairfax, a leading parliamentarian during the English Civil War, and was associated with many of the great philanthropists and thinkers of the day.

She was the niece of author, philosopher and feminist Harriet Martineau, who was herself a devout Unitarian and found herself in an exalted circle that included Florence Nightingale, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot and Charles Darwin.

She was also the second cousin of Guy Ritchie’s great-great-grandfather William Martineau, and cousins ​​of the Princess of Wales and the Hollywood star (albeit somewhat distantly).

Martineau’s granddaughter, Doris McLaughlin, married war hero Major Stewart Ritchie, a Seaforth Highlander who won a Military Cross during the First World War.

He was killed in action during the Second World War, leaving Guy’s father John Ritchie orphaned at the age of 12. Guy has often paid tribute to his grandfather, from whom he inherited his middle name.

Pictured: Guy Ritchie at the British premiere of the new version of The Little Mermaid

Her family tree includes Arthur Ransome, the children’s author of Swallows and Amazon

Ritchie took Madonna to a memorial service honoring the Seaforth Highlanders, who remained on French soil when British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk, and married the pop star in Highland garb.

But it was Frank’s equally wealthy brother Darnton, mayor of Leeds, who made the royal connections. Darnton Lupton was present at the welcoming party when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert opened Leeds Town Hall in 1887.

His granddaughter Florence and her husband Albert Kitson, 2nd Baron Airedale, who lived in the 17th century Gledhow Hall – famously painted by William Turner – attended George V’s coronation. And their daughters Doris and Evelyn were debutantes presented at court.

Kate’s great-grandmother Olive Middleton, granddaughter of Frank and Fanny, was close to her Airedale cousins ​​and attended the society balls at Gledhow Hall.

Her own family had tentacles throughout Leeds. Her father Francis Martineau Lupton, who ran the family business with his brother Arthur, was a JP and councilor of Leeds Council.

Olive Lupton, Kate Middleton’s great-great-grandmother on her father’s side. The Lupton family made a fortune from the wool trade in Yorkshire

As this family tree shows, the Princess of Wales also has surprising connections on her mother’s side

Pictured: children’s book author Beatrix Potter in 1905 at her Farm Hill Top in the Lake District

Pictured: King George V and Queen Mary’s three youngest children: Princess Victoria Mary, Prince John and Prince George, later Duke of Kent, in 1909

His brother Sir Charles Lupton was head of the law firm Dibb Lupton, Mayor of Leeds and Chairman of Leeds Infirmary, and presented Princess Mary with a wedding gift from the city when she married Viscount Lascelles.

Brother Hugh, chairman of Hathorn Davey & Co., a hydraulic engineering company, and his wife Isabella were Lord and Lady Mayores.

And brother Arthur was pro-vice-chancellor of the University of Leeds – he escorted King George V around campus in 1915. He was married to Harriot Ashton, a cousin of Beatrix Potter’s mother Helen.

Tragically, she died in childbirth in 1888, before her famous cousin published her first children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, leaving her husband to raise their fourth children Thomas, then four, Arthur, three, Elinor, two, and baby Elizabeth.