As the heir to the Earl Spencer title, Princess Diana’s younger brother Charles spent his childhood on the sprawling family estate he would one day inherit.
But life at Althorp was not as blissful as it sounds. Diana said she would always see her mother crying while Charles described the house as a ‘nightmarish place’.
He inherited his father’s title when he was just 27 years old, but rather than aristocratic comfort, his adult life brought similar tumult including two failed marriages, a broken-off engagement, and the tragic death of his older sister.
While he now seems content at Althorp with his third wife, Karen, his recent absence from his daughter Amelia’s wedding was a reminder of his seemingly distant relationships with his older children.
As Earl Spencer turns 59 today, MailOnline looks back at his complicated family life and who is going to inherit his title…
Charles Spencer married his third wife, Karen Gordon, in 2011 (pictured together in 2017)
Childhood
As a child, Charles lived at Park House on the Sandringham estate where both his mother, Frances and his sister, Diana were born.
He described the house as ‘the best place to grow up’ and is quoted in the book Diana: The Portrait saying: ‘It was a very lovely environment for anyone to grow up in; we didn’t realise how lucky we were.’
While the house provided an idyllic backdrop for his early life, Charles and his sisters Sarah, Jane and Diana, had to witness his parents’ unhappy marriage and eventual divorce.
John Spencer had married Frances Roche when he was 30 and she was just 18, which made her the youngest woman to get married at Westminster Abbey since 1893.
Charles grew up with his older sister Diana, who said she had always looked after him when they were young
As a child, Charles lived at Park House (pictured) on the Sandringham estate where both his mother, Frances and his sister, Diana were born
Their relationship declined and Diana told Andrew Morton: ‘I remember seeing my father slap my mother across the face. I was hiding behind the door, and Mummy was crying. I remember Mummy crying an awful lot.’
The pair divorced in 1969 and Frances lost a custody battle for her four children, proceeding to move to Scotland with her new husband, wallpaper tycoon Peter Shand Kydd, after which she was dubbed ‘the bolter’.
Diana told Morton of the disruption of when ‘Mummy decided to leg it’ and she would wait for her mother on the doorstep of the house after she said she would come back to visit her.
Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine, Spencer described his ‘ruptured childhood’, saying: ‘I’ve been in and out of therapy for 20 years. I did a lot of very profound work on my unhappy childhood last year, which was agonising and horrible.’
However Diana’s former nanny, Mary Clarke disputed his claims, telling The Sunday Times: ‘Those children didn’t even know about that court case…they didn’t know any of that trauma was going on…they were very sheltered. Those parents gave them a wonderful life.’
Charles’ parents John Spencer and Frances Roche were married in 1954 (pictured the day before their wedding)
Charles is pictured with his father, the 8th Earl Spencer, in the wine cellars of the estate
Charles said he had an ‘unhappy childhood’ and Diana said she saw ‘Mummy crying an awful lot’
John Spencer moved to Althorp with his children in 1975 after his father died and he took over the estate
Charles’ father became the 8th Earl Spencer in 1975 after his own father’s death and moved the family to Althorp, the stately home which has been linked to the Spencer family since 1508.
The two eldest children left for boarding school and while Diana would practice tap dancing in the halls of the grand house, Charles said the estate was like ‘an old man’s club with lots of clocks ticking away’.
Diana told Morton that she had always looked after her younger brother, Charles, adding: ‘We had so many changes of nannies, because Daddy was a very attractive divorcee and he was good bait for somebody.’
In 1976, John Spencer married Raine McCorquodale without telling his children, a matter which enraged Diana who said she had ‘slapped him across the face’.
In a video made by her voice coach and broadcast by the NBC network, Diana spoke of her argument with her father, saying: ‘He said, “I want to explain to you why, um, I’ve got married to Raine.”
‘And I said, “Well, we don’t like her”. And he said, “I know that, but you’ll grow to love her, as I have”.
‘And I said: “Well, we won’t”. I kept on saying we, not I…I was the little crusader here…and I got really angry and I, if I remember rightly, I slapped him across the face, and I said, “That’s from all of us, for hurting us” and walked out and slammed the door.’
Education and career
Leaving for boarding school aged eight, Charles had six months of sleepless nights before heading to Maidwell Hall preparatory school where pupils judged to be stupid or lazy were ‘really unpleasantly’ beaten with a cane on their bare buttocks.
‘I said I wanted to go to a state school because it must be preferable to 13-week blocks away in a rather cold and unpleasant place,’ he told TES magazine.
But the school’s former headmaster John Paul has previously suggested that Earl Spencer may have exaggerated how bad his time there was.
Charles attended Eton College, during which time his sister Diana married Prince Charles when she was 20 years old (Charles pictured at Eton)
Charles is pictured meeting the late Queen and the Queen mother during the Eton Boys’ Tea Party in 1978
‘He’s been in constant touch with the school ever since, so I don’t think he could have been that unhappy,’ Mr Paul said in 1992.
Rather than going to state school, Charles headed to Eton College, during which time Diana married Prince Charles when she was 20 years old.
His sister has spoken about how she felt that Charles was the ‘clever one’, but not with people, saying to Morton: ‘I’ve always seen him as the brains in the family. I still see that. He’s got S-levels, and things like that.
‘But if you’re talking about how to deal with situations and how to deal with people — no.’
After school, he gained a place at Magdalen College, Oxford to study modern history but admitted he committed very little time to his degree.
He then studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford but admitted he had committed very little time to his degree (pictured on the first day of his Oxford finals)
Charles was pictured with Diana, Prince Charles and his sisters Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes for his 21st birthday
‘I actually feel quite a lot of guilt about Oxford,’ he told The Times.
‘I really was the conventional Old Etonian: quite efficient at exams, got in, and then did very little work at all. And then right at the end I had to do a lot to make sure I did OK.’
While studying at the university he was invited to join the infamous Bullingdon Club alongside former prime ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson, a friend from school with whom the earl is still close, but declined the offer.
His old roommate Andrew MacDonald told Maclean’s that, thanks to a sense of ‘social validity’ and ‘deep self-confidence’, Charles ‘didn’t want to associate with those people’.
He went on to work as a journalist and broadcaster, spending ten years with American TV Network NBC News as an on-air correspondent and writing scripts for his pieces on the Today show.
He befriended fellow Eton alumnus Darius Guppy, who was arrested in 1993 for orchestrating a faked jewellery heist (pictured at Charles’ wedding to Victoria Lockwood)
He has reviewed books for the Mail on Sunday and the Financial Times and has written his own history books, including Althorp: The Story of an English House.
Despite not joining the club himself, he befriended Bullingdon member and fellow Eton alumnus Darius Guppy, who was arrested in 1993 for orchestrating a faked jewellery heist while he was working as a gem dealer, leading to Lloyd’s of London paying out £1.8million.
The fraudster had been best man at Earl Spencer’s wedding to Victoria Lockwood in 1989 but their friendship derailed when Darius accused Charles of seducing his wife Patricia while he was in prison.
The disagreement culminated in a bust-up on the manicured lawns of Darius’ mansion, leaving Charles with two black eyes, a broken cheekbone and concussion.
‘I miss all the friends I no longer see, but there are things that friends just don’t do,’ Darius told The Telegraph.
‘He crossed the line. But whatever has passed between us, the secrets that were shared by all of my friends will go with me to the grave.’
Romantic life
While Earl Spencer vehemently denied the accusations thrown at him by his former pal, his reputation as a lothario followed him.
The aristocrat proposed to his first wife, model Victoria Lockwood, after a whirlwind six-week romance.
The pair were married at a service attended by Diana and Prince Charles, where Prince Harry served as a pageboy and the radiant bride donned a medieval-style gown finished off with the Spencer tiara.
The earl’s first wife was model Victoria Lockwood, who he proposed to after a whirlwind six-week romance
Victoria and Charles were married at a service attended by Diana and Prince Charles but they separated in 1997
Charles and Victoria had four children – Lady Kitty, twins Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza and Louis, Viscount Althorp
Eliza, Louis, Victoria Lockwood and Kitty are pictured attending the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
It had been at the rehearsal for the wedding where Diana had come to blows with her stepmother Raine, who attended the wedding with her mother Frances at Althorp.
According to royal experts, Diana became frustrated that Raine wasn’t being attentive enough to Frances at lunch and flew at her in a rage, which ended with Diana pushing Raine down the stairs.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward opened up about the incident, saying: ‘She had a furious row with Raine because Diana was so upset that her own mother had been ignored in the ancestral home. She pushed her and Raine fell down the stairs.’
Charles and Victoria had four children – Lady Kitty, twins Lady Amelia and Lady Eliza and Louis, Viscount Althorp – and moved their family from Althorp to South Africa in an attempt to give their children more privacy.
Eliza told The Telegraph that the plan seemed to work, saying: ‘We were so lucky to have a normal, relaxed childhood. Public scrutiny didn’t exist at all.’
And yet at the time of their move, reports were beginning to emerge of Earl Spencer’s alleged infidelities.
He married his second wife Caroline in 2001, who was previously married to PR guru Matthew Freud
Charles and his second wife Caroline, pictured at Althorp in 2006, had two children together
The couple separated in 1997 – the same year Princess Diana tragically died in a car accident – and he moved back to the UK the following year, leaving Victoria and their family in Cape Town.
During the 1999 divorce hearing, it was claimed that Charles had described himself in a letter to a girlfriend as having been ‘vicious, cruel and a bully’ towards Victoria.
She also accused Charles of sleeping with other women while she was in rehab – accusations he has denied.
Her lawyer added that, while at a birthday party, Earl Spencer was told by his father that he should stick with his wife through thick and thin, to which he retorted that Victoria was ‘thin and certainly thick’.
Again, this is something he has denied saying.
The children stayed in South Africa and Amelia told The Telegraph: ‘Cape Town was all about the sea, hiking, horse riding, tennis, netball…After high school and university we were so happy that we didn’t feel the need to move.’
As part of Charles and Victoria’s custody agreement, the children also spent significant time at the Althorp estate following their parents’ divorce.
‘It is a truly special and beautiful place,’ Lady Eliza told Tatler. ‘Having spent the first three years of our lives at Althorp, exploring and discovering it as children, and being part of a long heritage of Spencers that have lived there, it has always felt like another home.’
Charles is pictured leaving his divorce hearing from Caroline with his daughter Kitty (left) and Lady Bianca Eliot (right)
Charles Spencer’s daughters also attended the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton
In 2006, Earl Spencer also purchased a £650,000 property in the wealthy suburb of Constantia to be closer to his children.
He set his children up in luxurious waterfront apartments and is said to have given his twin daughters an Audi sports car each for their 18th birthday.
His second marriage to Caroline, who was previously married to PR guru Matthew Freud, also ended in acrimony.
The pair married in 2001 and had two children, the Hon. Edmund and Lady Lara Spencer, but Charles left to start a relationship with American journalist Coleen Sullivan who had been sent to interview him.
One of his oldest friends told the Daily Mail at the time: ‘Charles attracts women by displaying a certain vulnerability – something of a little boy lost. It’s real, not phoney.
‘But he gets bored with a woman the moment he realises he has total control over her. It is not a pretty characteristic, but there it is.
‘I’m sure it goes back to his childhood when his mother ran off with another man. He loves the chase of women, and seducing them, but he can be ruthless with them.’
His divorce settlement with Caroline, who walked away with a £5.65 million payout, left Charles unhappy after he believed he had overpaid.
Expecting to pay £4.5 million, Charles blamed his lawyer Sir Nicholas Mostyn for costing him the extra £1 million.
He set out to sue the legal team who represented him because he said they did not warn him that changes in the law meant his divorce hearing would not be in private, resulting in him settling out of court.
But his action and a counter-claim against him were then dismissed after all parties agreed to an undisclosed settlement.
His new relationship with journalist Coleen brought despair among his family – Caroline was apparently ‘devastated’ and his older children reportedly never came to terms with the end of the relationship with Caroline – who they were said to have been fond of.
Charles was engaged to Lady Bianca Eliot, previously married to Bohemian aristocrat Jago Eliot, but the wedding was called off
The earl then married Karen Gordon after the pair first met on a blind date at a cocktail party in 2010
When Coleen came to Cape Town to spend Christmas with Earl Spencer and his children, the couple planned to spend a week at the Spencer mansion.
But the children, then aged 12 to 15, refused to come to the house if Coleen was there and he was forced to put her up in a five star hotel a short drive away from the house.
The pairing also unnerved the journalist’s father Michael Sullivan, a former police officer and highly-trained firearms expert, who was said to have held an intense two-hour summit with Charles in which he grilled him over his intentions.
This relationship too was over within 18 months after which time Michael concluded the earl was a ‘jerk’ and said: ‘He can’t handle strong women.’
Following a brief romance with divorcee Jane Yarrow, ex-wife of City financier David Yarrow, a member of the Yarrow shipbuilding dynasty, a newly single Earl Spencer then started up with former model, Lady Bianca Eliot.
Previously married to Bohemian aristocrat Jago Eliot, heir to the sprawling Port Eliot estate in Cornwall, Bianca was left widowed when her husband died following an epileptic fit when he was 40 years old and his wife was just 29.
Bianca met Earl Spencer at the Groucho Club in Soho and became engaged. But the wedding was called off and her friends accused Charles of being a ‘control freak’.
One told the Daily Mail: ‘He is very set in his ways. It is his way or nothing. There is no compromise, and that can be very difficult sometimes.’
Family and friends were said to be ‘shell-shocked’ when the following year, Charles announced that he was engaged again, this time to Karen Gordon, with whom the earl seems to have met his match.
In stark contrast to his aristocratic fiancée just a few months earlier, the Canadian-born former model Karen, born Villeneuve, is the daughter of a park ranger.
She dropped out of college and met her first husband Mark Gordon, at that time an up-and-coming film executive, at the age of 21 while working as a receptionist at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto.
They married three years later in 1997 and hit the jackpot the following year when Mark produced Saving Private Ryan, going on to create the TV hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy. They had two daughters, Emma and Katie, before they divorced in 2003.
Her post-break up recovery involved touring orphanages around the world and, horrified at the conditions, she put most of her divorce settlement into setting up a charity, Whole Child International, which works to improve the standard of care of orphaned children worldwide.
Despite the gesture leaving Karen with financial problems, her charity work was of particular interest to Charles when the pair first met on a blind date at a cocktail party in 2010.
Charles proposed with a ring which, according to Hello!, was once given to Charles’ great grandmother, Countess Margaret Spencer, on her wedding day to 6th Earl Spencer, featuring a silver band with three round diamonds. The pair were married at an intimate private ceremony in 2011.
Diana’s fearless defender
At Princess Diana’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in 1997, Charles was met with applause as he delivered his vitriolic eulogy which was nominated as one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century.
He issued a thinly veiled attack on the Royal Family for stripping Diana of her Royal status, describing her as a British girl who ‘needed no Royal title to continue to generate her brand of magic’.
Charles is famed for the eulogy he delivered at his older sister Diana’s funeral which issued a thinly veiled attack on the Royal Family
He also mentioned his sister’s eating disorders and attacked the media and paparazzi, saying the greatest irony of her life was that ‘a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting, was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age’.
He also spoke boldly of his blood ties with Diana and how he would encourage her two sons to ‘sing openly’ rather than simply being ‘immersed by duty and tradition’.
He later said that he had rehearsed the speech, writing in The Guardian: ‘I read it to Diana’s coffin, in the chapel at St James’s Palace, and at the conclusion heard a whisper that sounded like satisfaction in that sad, sad, place.’
Charles also spoke out to defend himself and his sister after the revelations that former BBC journalist Martin Bashir had deceived the siblings to gain access to Diana for an interview.
The interview, originally broadcast by Panorama in 1995, was watched by 23 million people and saw Diana declare that ‘there were three of us in this marriage’.
Earl Spencer and his older sister Diana have spoken out about their unhappy childhood
He walked behind the carriage carrying Diana’s casket alongside Prince Philip, Prince William, Prince Harry and Prince Charles
Bashir showed Earl Spencer false bank statements which suggested his former head of security had been receiving money from tabloids and the security services to spy on his sister.
Once he had gained access, Bashir told Diana a string of lies, convincing her that Prince Charles was having an affair with then royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke – now Alexandra Pettifer – and that she became pregnant and had an abortion as a result.
Writing for the Mail on Sunday, Earl Spencer said: ‘What Mr Bashir told me was shocking – a series of tales so extraordinary that, as soon as he left, I called Panorama’s executive producer, who confirmed it was all true and that I could trust Mr Bashir.
‘Over the following three weeks I feel that I was groomed: I was shown forged bank statements; I was told of underhand payments, of spying, and of appalling deception. But, all along I was the one being deceived in order for Mr Bashir to get to my late sister, through me.’
As well as demanding a posthumous apology from BBC chiefs for Diana and all those who were lied to, he also called for a thorough investigation into the Bashir affair and for contributions from the worldwide sales of the interview to be made to charities forever linked to Diana.
But the earl’s unwavering support for his sister has been questioned by some of those who were close to the princess.
Speaking in an interview for an ABC documentary, Charles admitted that he was haunted by the thought he could have done something to save his sister in the days after her death.
He said he would ask himself: ‘What could I have done? But you always think, “God, I wish I could have protected her.” It was devastating. I always felt… intensely protective towards her.’
The princess’s former chef, Darren McGrady, who worked for the Queen for 11 years before becoming Diana’s personal chef, wrote on Twitter at the time: ‘This makes me want to throw up!’
Earl Spencer was pictured addressing journalists outside his home in Cape Town after Diana’s death
Princess Diana was laid to rest on an island in the centre of the Oval Lake at Althorp, where she had lived as a child
Charles, pictured with Prince Harry, said in his eulogy that he would encourage Diana’s children encourage her two sons to ‘sing openly’
The disgruntled comment was in reference to an episode in 1996 when Diana asked her brother if she could be given a home on the Althorp estate, Garden House, to use as a bolt-hole.
Her only home was her apartment at Kensington Palace and after her divorce, the princess wanted to find a place she could use at weekends.
But in a letter revealed by Paul Burrell, the earl responded to his sister’s request saying: ‘I’m sorry, but I’ve decided that the Garden House isn’t a possible move now. There are many reasons, most of which include the police and press interference which would inevitably follow.’
‘I know you will be disappointed but I know I am doing the right thing for my wife and children. I am just sorry I cannot help my sister!’
He described the state of their relationship, adding: ‘I fear for you. I know how manipulation and deceit are parts of the illness [believed to be her eating disorders]… I pray that you are getting appropriate and sympathetic treatment for your mental problems.
‘After years of neglect on both sides, our relationship is the weakest I have with any of my sisters… I long ago accepted that I was a peripheral part of your life, and that no longer saddens me.
‘I will always be there for you, as a loving brother – albeit one who has, through 15 years’ absence, rather lost touch.’
The earl made clear that he offered Diana alternative houses on the estate, none of which she accepted.
He wrote in his letter: ‘In theory it would be lovely to help you out and I am sorry I can’t do that… If you are really interested in renting a farmhouse, either here or in Warwickshire or Norfolk, that would be wonderful.’
The Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter, who worked closely with the princess, said: ‘She didn’t want to live there at Althorp, she just wanted a bolt-hole.
‘The tragedy is she does have a bolt-hole there now – on an island, where she is buried.’
He was speaking in reference to Diana’s memorial at the house, who was laid to rest on an island in the centre of the Oval Lake at Althorp, which had been her childhood home.
Relationship with his children
Critics among Diana’s staff are not the only ones whose relationship with the earl appears less than harmonious.
Charles was noticeably absent from the lavish celebrations for his daughter Kitty’s wedding in Rome in 2021 after a source claimed their relationship went downhill following his third marriage.
Earl Spencer has seven children from his three marriages: Kitty, Eliza, Amelia, Louis, Edmund, Lara and Charlotte
Charles and his eldest daughter Kitty were said to have had a close relationship with one source calling them ‘thick as thieves’
Princess Diana’s niece stunned in a lace Dolce and Gabbana gown as she wed retail millionaire Michael Lewis at a 17th century Italian castle.
But rather than her father walking her down the aisle, the responsibility was taken on by her brother Louis and her half-brother Samuel Aitken, whose father is businessman Jonathan Aitken.
The shock absence followed the pair’s close relationship while Kitty was growing up, and they were said to have been ‘thick as thieves’ despite her parents’ difficult divorce.
She had spent time at Althorp while she was studying in the UK which according to one source had ‘strengthened the bond’, adding: ‘I don’t envy any boyfriend who tries to come between them.’
As an 18-year-old, Charles’ eldest daughter accompanied him to court hearings as he was in the process of divorcing his second wife, Caroline.
‘They get on absolutely famously and she was always going to side with him ultimately,’ the source added.
Lady Kitty married millionaire Michael Lewis at a 17th century Italian castle in Rome in 2021
Earl Spencer did not attend the wedding of his eldest daughter, Kitty (pictured with her husband Michael Lewis)
Her father did not attend and she was walked down the aisle by her brother Louis and her half brother Samuel Aitken
She was even quoted at the time as saying her stepmother was an ‘awful woman’ but when quizzed about this, she replied: ‘I don’t know when I said that. I would never say that to anyone, especially not to someone who was going to write about it.’
But Charles’ absence from Kitty’s wedding was said to be a sign of a change in their relationship and a source told MailOnline: ‘Kitty and Charles were very close when she was growing up, but their relationship has cooled and been more distant since his marriage to his third wife Karen in 2011.
‘Charles recently suffered an injury and perhaps that will be the reason for him not travelling, but it is just easier for everyone that he is not there.’
‘The four children are all close to their mother Victoria and get on well with their step siblings, and their Spencer aunts and have forged their own relationships with one another without needing Charles to bind them together,’ they added.
Suggestions that all is not well between the earl and his children with his first wife continued to circulate when he also missed the wedding of his daughter Amelia in South Africa.
Despite Greg asking for Charles’ blessing before he proposed to Charles’ daughter Amelia, the earl did not attend their wedding
Lady Amelia dazzled in a glittering white sequin dress for her post-wedding celebration in South Africa
His absence was particularly surprising after the earl revealed Amelia’s new husband, Greg Mallett, had asked for Charles’ blessing before proposing to his daughter.
Posting on Twitter following the announcement, Charles said: ‘So happy for my daughter, Amelia, engaged to her boyfriend of 11 years, Greg – it’s wonderful to hear them both so excited about their future.
‘Sending them both love, and every good wish for their life together. I love that Greg asked my blessing before proposing. Very sweet.’
But on the wedding day the couple’s friends and family celebrated without Charles and Amelia was walked down the aisle by Samuel Aitken.
In an interview with the Sunday Times in 2020, Charles’ wife Karen had hinted at the difficulties she has faced with her husband’s eldest children, saying: ‘I’m a fixer. I’m hugely overconfident and I probably underestimated the complexities of being a step-parent.
‘Charles gave me the best advice, which is to say nothing and do nothing about anything, ever. I don’t get to have an opinion about his children. I can have an opinion and give it to him, in our bedroom, but not to them.’
The next caretakers of Althorp
Despite his unhappy years at Althorp in his early life, Charles has made it his mission to restore the stately home.
Speaking about his project to The Tennessean, he said: ‘It goes back to the theme of authenticity, really.
Charles Spencer and his wife Karen live together at Althorp where Karen has reportedly installed a bouncy castle in the dining room for their daughter
‘Getting to the soul of the place…and respecting it and building on it.’
A major restoration project in 2011 included over 48 tons of new stonework and 120 tons of lead added to the roof and, according to House Beautiful, later received an award from the East Midlands Branch of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Charles’ wife Karen seems committed to the cause and has stepped into her role as the next chatelaine of Althorp with ease.
In a radical revamp of the ‘big and dark and old’ house, Karen installed a bouncy castle in the silk-lined dining room for their daughter, Lady Charlotte Diana.
‘A lot of people are quite surprised by it!’ she told the Daily Mail when asked about the addition of the ‘soft play area’.
She also planned a major renovation of Diana’s memorial at the house which Charles described as ‘unbelievably beautiful and appropriate’.
Karen reportedly runs a tight ship at home, with all of the earl’s children having to follow her strict rules when they come to stay: strict meal times, no junk food, moderate alcohol consumption and no pets upstairs.
In an interview with Town and Country Magazine, she revealed she had even shaken up the classic English country house weekend.
Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, pictured in 2018, is set to inherit the estate thanks to the practice of male primogeniture
Louis, pictured with his Principal, graduated from drama school ArtsEd, an independent performing arts school, last year
She said: ‘It’s a completely foreign concept for those of us from North America. When I moved in, I made them a bit more glam: we switched dinner on Saturday nights to black tie, because everyone wants to dress up.
‘Plus, it’s a great excuse for me to wear the Spencer jewellery.’
Speaking of the history of the Tudor mansion, she added: ‘The portraits and furniture are a constant reminder that I am a tiny part of a big lineage.’
The house is set to stay in the Spencer family as Charles’ youngest child and only son Louis, Viscount Althorp is set to inherit.
When he was younger, Louis lived with his mother in South Africa where he attended Cape Town’s most expensive private school Diocesan College before returning to the UK to study at Edinburgh University.
Unlike his older sisters, Louis shuns social media and avoids high profile events, despite graduating from a performing arts school with hopes of becoming a professional actor.
He was dubbed the ‘reluctant poster boy of male primogeniture’ by the Daily Telegraph, referring to the centuries-old practice of male primogeniture, by which an aristocrat’s title and estate passes to the eldest son, rather than the eldest child.
The rule means that Louis will inherit the state over Earl Spencer’s oldest child, Lady Kitty.
She discussed being overlooked in the order of inheritance with Town and Country magazine, saying: ‘Primogeniture can be a tricky topic, because as times are changing, attitudes are as well.
‘We’ve grown up understanding that it’s Louis to inherit, and Louis will do an incredible job.’
Earl Spencer has spoken out about keeping the tradition, saying in 2015: ‘If I chose Kitty it would be against all the tradition that goes with Althorp. It’s just the way it is. I get the problems with it as a concept.
‘I also get the strengths of it having worked to date. It is still intact. If you go around the chateaux of the Loire or whatever, they are empty.
‘Everything gets split equally through the generations and you end up with a beautiful building with one nice tapestry in it. The whole idea of primogeniture was to keep it together.’
Charles, the only surviving son of Frances Shand Kydd and John Spencer, also benefitted from male primogeniture.
He superseded his older sisters in inheriting the estate after his and Diana’s older brother, John Spencer, died within ten hours of his birth on 12 January 1960.
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