This is the weirdest story. The late Princess Diana only had one brother, her younger brother Charles Spencer, who inherited the family’s grand Althorp estate. The estate could not have been inherited by Diana or her two older sisters, because the British aristocracy still operates by the ancient, sexist laws of male primogeniture, where the firstborn SON inherits everything. There have been a handful of exceptions where aristocrats’ daughters inherit their fathers’ properties, titles and/or estates, but that’s usually when there are no male heirs, and even then, I think the Queen basically has to approve it. Anyway, Charles Spencer has been the Earl Spencer for decades now. He’s on his third wife, and he has seven children combined through three marriages. And Althorp is still going to his firstborn SON, not his any of his oldest daughters. That’s the law. But the Earl Spencer and the Daily Mail makes it sound like Charles is making a choice to leave everything to his son. That’s… not the case?
Earl Spencer, the younger brother of Princess Diana, has revealed his plans to leave the family’s Althorp estate to his son, rather than his eldest daughter, Kitty. The journalist and broadcaster, who has been married three times, has seven children aged between 28 and seven. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, it was revealed he is likely to follow the practice of male primogeniture, in which titles, as well as stately homes, are inherited by the eldest son.
For Earl Spencer, this means sprawling Althorp, in Northamptonshire, will likely be passed on to drama student Viscount Louis Spencer, 25, rather than to any of his three older daughters, Lady Kitty, 28, and twins Lady Eliza and Lady Amelia, 27.
‘Is it any fairer that the eldest child gets it instead of the eldest male?,’ he asked, reasoning: ‘Whatever you say is a selection.’
However Earl Spencer, who is also father to Hon Edmund, 15, Lady Lara, 13 and seven-year-old Lady Charlotte, admitted it was far from certain that any of his children would want to take up the responsibility of maintaining the family estate.
‘You have to hope that something has bedded down when their turn comes,’ he said.
The Earl Spencer and Princess Diana’s father was the first one to really turn Althorp into any kind of consistently profitable estate – he did so by opening the place up for tours, and even rentals. Charles has done the same, and even more so – people pay to stay in Althorp for all sorts of things, and I’m pretty sure that Charles lives in South Africa most of the time now and just lets Althorp be operated by staff. Anyway, this was weird, right? The Earl Spencer doesn’t have a choice about who inherits Althorp. He’s making it sound like he does. Of course his son Louis will inherit.
This is his oldest child, Lady Kitty Spencer. She’s a model and people always talk about how she looks like Diana. Except… not really?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
She looks a lot like her mother but with her father’s eyes and colouring.
Kitty is gorgeous but no, she doesn’t look like Diana.
This is like when everybody says Caroline Kennedy’s son looks like JFK Jr, and I’m struggling to see it.
Agree–he is tall and has a thick head of dark hair, but that is about where the resemblance ends for me.
I see the resemblance between Jack Schlossberg and JFK, Jr. especially with certain pictures. Some other pictures not so much, and I get why people say that. Now Kitty, other than tall, blond and attractive, I don’t see feature that are the same. Honestly, and people may kill me for this but Kitty seems more model beautiful. Diana was beautiful just more shy like and not quite as striking as her niece. Diana seems more approachable too.
Yeah, she has big blue eyes and is blonde but otherwise I don’t see it.
Her name is Kitty? Or is it short for like…Katherine? She looks nothing like Diana but I can see how saying that advances her career.
She posted a photo of herself as a child and Charlotte looks just like her. It’s uncanny.
I can definitely see how she resembles Diana in certain ways but I don’t think she looks ‘just like’ her or really looks like her.
Pretty sure that’s her actual name, not a nickname.
Is she named after someone? I’ve only ever heard Kitty as a nickname. Seems like a tough name to be an adult with.
Kitty is often a nickname for Catherine/Katherine, but I’m not sure in this case.
I went to a very preppie school growing up, with Kittys, Crickets, Buffys, and a Muffy or two.
Crickets? That’s not right at all lol poor kids! Buffy is okay but again…how do you adult with a name like that?
Perhaps he’s saying he is making a choice not to fight for a change to the rules?
He has some very good looking children, they must take after their mothers.
I was thinking quite the opposite; British nobility produces rather homely offspring who age terribly. They all seem to have jowly faces, big boned dingy teeth and weary eyes. . That’s not to say there isn’t the occasional beauty, but it’s rare. And IMO Lady Kitty is not a beauty by any means. Why do people act like Blonde/blue = automatic beauty? It just doesn’t. Not one of them is as beautiful as Meghan. Not even close.
Now I don’t think Meghan is beautiful. She’s very attractive with a great smile, and definitely seems approachable. She’s the pretty girl you can talk to, not the one you are scared to. Honestly, if we are just talking looks I think Kate is more attractive. To me thou who I would say is beautiful both inside and out is Michelle Obama. She got so much crap cause she was a tall, athletic, woman of color, and not the social ideal of beauty that is pushed in today’s society. Still she shined. I’m sure she gave Meghan some great off the record advice too. Still to each is own. Beauty is definitely different for all.
Sunnee…I totally agree. And I don’t think Lady Kitty (awful name) looks much like Diana & I don’t think she’s a raving beauty either. I have seen some photos where she looks like she has a wonky eye. I have never thought her mother Victoria Lockwood was pretty or beautiful either….her brows were too close to her eyes & she looked emaciated. In general, I think it’s down to taste. There are several British actors who have been called handsome who I think are just plain unfortunate looking: Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Matt Smith… Different strokes for different folks…
I understood he meant that even if the eldest child inherits, regardless of gender, it would still be unfair. It is a selection because order of birth determines who inherits. He didn’t push that hard though. He should have said “why the eldest son and not the eldest child? Why the eldest child and not the most capable child regardless of order of birth?” Can’t shake the status quo too much.
But in what country does the eldest child inherit? Usually the estate is divided equally among the offspring, or between the offspring and the wife, right? Although the idea of having only one beneficiary is so that those large estates stay intact. Just did a quick read on Wikipedia. Wowzers! But it looks like even though only one person inherits, & it appears they can’t sell off the land (?), they can indeed sell off the contents of the house (paintings, books) in order to keep the place going
BeanieBean, Althrop is an entailed state meaning the estate is entailed to the title Earl Spencer. Whoever gets the title gets all the entailed property. Any property owned personal by Charles Spencer is not entailed to the estate (his house in South Africa???) and he can do with it whatever he wants in his will with regards to division of his assests.
The Duke of Devonshire (See: Secrets of Chatsworth on PBS) has made the exact same division regarding his son Billy, Earl of Burlington. EVERYTHING is going to Billy to with the responsibility keep Chatsworth together but the Duke expects his son the Earl (who is married to Laura Roundell) to take care of his sisters.
This is NBD. Charles Spencer just must like seeing his mug in the Daily Mail. Earl Spencer is quite the cad.
It is a choice and that’s not quite now it works. I mean in a historical context, it wouldn’t have been a choice because handing it all down the the eldest male is just how it’s always worked. In more modern times, there is the choice to leave it to the eldest child, eldest male or split the estate between all the children or whoever he wants. The first two choices are unfair and the third choice means the end the line in terms of the estate. Leave it to all of your children and they’re either going to have to sell it or run it together and what happens when they themselves have children?
It depends on the terms of the estate. If the estate is entailed (traditionally a fee tail male, to male heirs of the body only) then there isn’t any choice for any individual holder of the estate. He can leave his personal property to whomever he likes, but the estate itself goes to the eldest son of the house. If there are only daughters, it goes to the nearest male relative. There is a case before the European Court of Human Rights (which is not part of the EU) about it.
She doesn’t look like Diana.
I like the theory that Diana’s father was actually James Goldsmith
Pics of young Diana and young Jemima Khan? Very strong resemblance. And not in a superficial “oh, same colouring, fine features” way. In a SISTERS way.
Wow! They do!
And he had those VERY blue eyes…
Oh, please. Jemima’s looks are her mother’s.
Yes, I agree. Jemima is the spitting image of her mother!
Diana looked a lot like Johnnie Spencer her father. All her siblings do too, and Prince WIlliam a bit as well.
Yes, William IMO, looks more like his late grandfather Spencer than Prince Edward.
When Will was younger I thought he was a total Spencer, but the older he gets, the more he looks like Charles.
Wow, I didn’t know who Jemima was but after a quick google. Wow.
Agree Diana bears a strong resemblance to James Goldsmith’s children. Check out a pic of Zachary Goldsmith.
Problem with the Goldsmith theory is it leaves Harry’s red hair a mystery as that comes from Johnny Spencer.
Of the Spencer children, I’d say Diana & her sister Jane both took after their mother, Frances, while Sarah & Charles look more like their dad. Common in families.
I don’t see a great resemblance with Jemima, personally.
It could be that the Althorp Estate is not entailed; thus, he could leave the property to whichever child he chose.
Now, I’m probably talking about something I don’t know much about, but I do know that Diana’s parents were disappointed that she was not a boy. So Althorp has to be inherited by a male?
I know Prince Charles supports primogeniture for the nobility, but I hate to tell him, it’s on its way out. It’s just a matter of time.
The Althorp is Entailed to the title Earl Spencer.
Yeah I didn’t watch a hundred seasons of Downton Abbey for nothing. All that discussion of the “entail.” I wonder how you get around it….if it requires permission from the Monarch, I’m sure the Queen, Charles etc don’t want to touch that with a ten foot pole, given it involves the Spencers.
Kitty Spencer is beautiful but the last I heard she was dating some skeezy old rich guy many years older than her.
Everything I know on this topic comes from romance novels lol.
I believe it’s next to impossible to break an entail when there are legitimate male heirs. Her could reissue/amend the letters patent that established the title and entail but that would set an obnoxious precedent and result in the queen having to justify why she did it for old ladeedah and not baron whatever.
Now if there is no male heir, estate and title revert to the queen I believe and she could grant it to a female “heir” with a fresh letters patent I think. Or she can keep it and grant it to whomever marries Princess Charlotte or something.
The heir issue in general is seemingly difficult to change from my understanding because unlike the laws of succession, you can’t just pass a law and boom, the first born inherits.
You have to amend or reissue or something each letters patent since I think that’s what details who can inherit.
But again, this is my regency era novel degree speaking.
“I believe it’s next to impossible to break an entail when there are legitimate male heirs.”
or when the estate has assets.
Estate with no male heir: The last Earl Fitzwilliam. This is great rabbit hole to crawl down. Estate was broken up and sold after death of the last Earl.
Third to last Earl Fitzwilliam left all non-entailed property (and it was a lot) to his only child a daughter. This daughter is the mother-in-law of that Jacob Rees-Mogg person.
Between WWI and WWII many estates were sold to pay creditors and death duties. This is the only way an entailed estate may be broken up if there is a male heir even if that male heir is a 9th cousin twice removed.
Some estates and titles can pass to and through females such as the Dukedom of Marlborough and the Marquisette of Bute. There are others but cannot think of them off the top of my head.
“Now if there is no male heir, estate and title revert to the queen”
I think it is just the title not the estate but I could be wrong.
The entailed portions of the estate follow the title from what I understand.
Bay is right, the proceeds of the estate and holdings go to the heir (in the Fitzwilliam case, Juliet Tadgell). The title reverts to the Queen and she can bestow it again if she wishes.
She doesn’t look like Diana at all. She’s had some really unnecessary plastic surgery, though, so maybe she looked more like her before?
When Kate was pregnant the first time I remember that they rushed to change the law that would allow her first born to inherit the throne regardless of gender. I wonder if that changed the law for all titles and not just King/Queen. Otherwise why write this story? There is no story.
That only changed the law for succession to the British crown.
The Act of Settlement 1701 did all sorts of things, like bar people who were Catholic or married Catholics from ascending to the crown. It also said that sons were to be preferred over daughters.
When they changed the law, they had to get approval from ALL the countries that Elizabeth reigns over. (The pregnancy meant they couldn’t dawdle.)
They changed to law to absolute primogeniture, which is first born gets it, regardless of sex. It wasn’t retroactive, so Andrew and Edward are still technically higher up than Anne. But it would have gone into affect for W&K’s first born.
George’s first born will be heir. If he doesn’t have heirs, then it will go to Charlotte and her heirs, instead of skipping down to Louis.
The UK is lagging behind the rest of Europe. Most European Monarchies, even Spain, made this change years ago. Sweden did as early as 1908.
It made no difference in Spain because King Felipe VI has only daughters.
Spain didn’t change the law of succession. Sons still have preference over daughters. But because the current king only has daughters and changing the constitution is incredibly difficult in Spain, the matter was delayed for another generation.
However, Spain is the only country in Europe where gender equality and absolute primogeniture applies to all noble titles by law. In most of Europe, women can’t inherit any noble titles at all. The Iberian countries were almost always the exception because female succession (in the absence of sons) was always a thing.
@BayTampaBay I don’t think it was 1908 for Sweden, unless that was a typo and you mean 1980s. If I recall correctly, Carl Philip was heir apparent when he was born, even though he’s the second child. Then they changed male primogeniture so that Victoria, the first born was heir apparent. And apparently, the misogynistic king is still bitter about it.
Sweden changed the law in 1980, not 1908. Victoria (born in 1977) was briefly supplanted by her younger brother as the heir but then they changed the law and she became the crown princess again.
@all, Sorry for the typo, I meant to type 1980!
@thea CG was the fifth child after four girls. It is said that the swedish crown prince and princess were near desperate and the birth of cg was like a miracle, bc the succession was, I think, salic. But that was changed in 1980, although the kimg seems to be somewhat chagrined about it still…
Earl Spencer is really messy so this statement was on the mild end of what he usually likes to do.
His kids are the interesting ones Louis is a good looking guy and he has a good head of hair which is all I can think about when he’s pictured with William or Harry. He also randomly took a pic with Nicki Minaj if that’s something you care about. Lady Kitty (yes that’s her full first name) is very pretty but she doesn’t really look like Diana to me and she also has that rich girl model thing going on like Harry and William’s other cousin Amelia Windsor, which means that in the regular world they would just be pretty but since they’re members of the aristocracy their beauty gets elevated to model but that’s jus my opinion.
Kitty and Louis also have a set of twin sisters, Eliza and Amelia. they are pretty as well if I remember from WIll and Kate’s wedding.
Speaking of Earl Spencer being messy I am surprised he has stuck with his current wife (Countess Karen?) for so long. I guess third time was the charm?
IMHO, Lady Amelia Windsor is better model material that Lady Kitty Spencer and Lady Lola Crichton-Stuart is better than both of them put together.
Do not forget that Rose Hanbury had a pretty good run as a model. She did a couple of excellent layouts for Tatler and a super high-end saddle & leather company whose name I cannot remember.
I think Lady Kitty looks like Heidi Klum. The Earl is a piece of work.
The idea of primogeniture was to keep family estates together vs having them split up further with every generation. As said above, this estate is entailed to the title of Earl Spencer which goes to the eldest male child. If there is no eldest male child in a generation it would go to the eldest male child of the second-born son in the previous generation and so on. (Think Downton Abbey) Primogeniture as a law in the absence of a will was abolished in the UK in the 20s though. This is just about keeping the family estate together and it traveled with the male line because men did not/don’t usually change their names when they marry and so there’s always a Spencer in charge. Nowadays it’s just tradition and I would think if there was no Earl Spencer in a generation, a Countess ought to suffice to inherit, like Charlotte is now next for the crown in line after George.
I agree with you in terms of what ought to happen, but many estates have formalised primogeniture in the form of an entail (fee tail male). The Law of Property Act 1925 abolished fee tail as a legal estate, but fee tail can still exist in England and Wales as an equitable interest, behind a strict settlement (trust). The legal estate is vested in the current ‘tenant for life’ or other person immediately entitled to the income, but any capital money arising must be paid to the trustees.
He still has a house in South Africa? I know his ex wife Victoria stays here but I thought he moved back to the UK, lock, stock and all smoking barrels.
Many times when an estate would go through a female, due to absence of heir in the male line, the male that would inherit had to change his name.
This is what happened with the UK Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman. He inherited from an aunt and condition of the inheritance was to change his name. This name changing stuff is now non-enforceable as a term of inheritance in the UK.
Yes, Charles and his wife Karen (Canadian, from Edmonton) spend the majority of their time in the UK. When they travel to the United States, it’s usually the Los Angeles area.
Did not Charles Spenser leave South Africa when he wanted to divorce his first wife because the divorces laws of the UK were more in his favor that the divorce laws of South Africa. I think I read this somewhere years ago but I never cared for Charlie Spencer so I did not take notes.
She has the Spencer family’s Wedgwood china colored eyes, but the resemblance to Diana ends there.
He’s awful. He complained about how terribly Diana was treated by the RF, then two seconds later treats his wife (wives) with just as much contempt.
Does anyone have the real tea on his second marriage and second wife?
I find Kitty Spencer’s beauty to be utterly bland and not at all like Diana’s who was much more striking.
Totally agree Mego. Kitty is attractive, but in a generic blonde kind of way, like an anchor from an entertainment show like access Hollywood or ET. You can tell she’s had some work done too. Diana was blonde with blue eyes but there was nothing typical about her. She had a singular beauty that made her special. And she was just lit from within.
Every time I see this man I recall how awful he was to his Ex-Wife, used to be in the tabs pretty often. Serial cheater. One of the Exs was truly under weight and I think on the verge of collapse for a time because of the situation. He really enjoyed his time in the limelight and was very public in his cheating. The phrase “bit of a Lad” a cute way of saying he cheats on all his women openly.
Kitty is her given name, not a nickname. She looks very much like her Mother.
All the books I read on Diana mentioned what a spoiled brat Charles was as the only boy. I guess leopards don’t change their spots.
That’s not actually how it works. Yes, the son inherits the title and if there’s no son then the eldest daughter does. But with a few (mostly Scottish) exceptions, the title and the assets including castles or manors are separate, and you can leave your wealth to whomever you like.