Latest news with #aristocracy
National Post
28-05-2025
- General
- National Post
Anthony Koch: Anti-elitism is antithetical to the conservative tradition
Article content But crowds do not think. They react. They surge, scream and stampede. As the crowd grows, the mind shrinks. That is the enduring lesson of the revolution: when the mob is sovereign, civilization burns. Article content The conservative does not idolize the mob. He fears it. He respects the people but insists they deserve more than flattery. They deserve leadership. Real leadership — wise, learned, prudent and self-restrained. The kind that builds cathedrals rather than chasing hashtags. The kind that governs with duty rather than ruling for applause. Article content Our problem today is not that we have elites. It's that they are unworthy of the station they hold. They sneer at tradition, mock virtue and outsource their conscience to PR firms and DEI consultants. They lack the moral formation, the historical consciousness and the sense of stewardship that once defined true aristocracy — not of blood, but of character. Article content What we need is not to abolish elites, but to demand better ones. We need statesmen, not managers; custodians, not careerists; a ruling class that sees its role not as a license to exploit, but as a duty to preserve — to pass on the best of what came before, and to elevate what lies ahead. Article content Article content That is the conservative vision: a society not of rigid castes or phony egalitarianism, but of ordered liberty, guided by a moral elite that's worthy of its name. A society where hierarchy is not oppression but harmony; where authority is earned, and exercised with humility. Article content Article content Article content
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Countess of Yarmouth reveals she's worried about paying children's school fees after her aristocratic husband's parents disinherited him and cut him off from 345-year-old ancestral home
The wife of the Earl of Yarmouth, who has been disinherited from his aristocratic family's £85million estate, says she fears the couple will not be able to 'meet the cost' of their children's private school fees after losing a bitter legal battle. William Seymour, 31, has been involved in a messy spat with his parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford, since 2018, when they objected to his wedding to Kelsey Wells – now Lady Yarmouth – a former director at Goldman Sachs. However Lord Hertford, 66, said his decision to disinherit his son may have 'coincided with his marriage, but Kelsey is not the main reason.' He cited other factors including that he was 'disappointed at William's lack of achievement' and said he did not have the 'qualifications or experience' to take over the family's Ragley estate in Warwickshire. Lord Yarmouth launched a legal action in an attempt to remove the trustees in charge of the running of the estate – including a cousin of his father and a long-standing family friend – who he felt were on the side of his parents and had 'closed ranks' against him. But in a judgement handed down on Monday, Master James Brightwell dismissed his claim, ruling that the trustees had 'acted professionally throughout and are capable of continuing to do so.' It now means Lord Yarmouth has effectively been disinherited from the sprawling estate, including the 110-room Palladian stately mansion his parents call home. For her part, Lady Yarmouth has called the entire affair a 'tragedy'- not only financially, but also personally, as her husband and now also their children, Clement, five, and Jocelyn, three, having been excommunicated by the Hertfords. She has also clarified their high-profile legal battle, which has essentially aired the family's woes in public, was never about the inheritance, but simply a way to protect 'uncertainty' for their children, who are discretionary beneficiaries of the family trusts. Previously the couple had received around £7.45million in assets and income from the trusts - but Lady Yarmouth says they have now not received any money to pay for their children's school fees. 'We are trying to meet that cost ourselves,' she told The Times, pointing to her 'entrepreneurial' husband, who runs a business selling an award-winning elderflower liqueur called St Maur. 'One of the things that is of principal benefit to future generations, the future of the marquessate, the senior male line, is to help and support them with their education.' Throughout the court case, Lord Yarmouth was referred to as 'lazy' and an 'entitled toff', though his wife was keen to argue against such barbs. In contrast he was a 'doer', she said. He has been getting up at four o'clock in the morning to harvest the elderflowers, bottling the liquor and selling the product at markets and festivals. That said, there was no entirely escaping from their aristocratic background. The Countess said she acknowledged they are 'very privileged individuals', but was insistent her children should not be a part of the 'inter-generational dispute' that has struck the family. She added: 'We are trying to make better than what we have received and we are trying to improve on what we have received for the future.' In the wake of their legal defeat, the couple said they would be looking to foster reconciliation with the Hertfords, but the cracks between son and parents have been long established. Before their marriage, he family displayed such 'deep antagonism' towards Lady Yarmouth, 39, that on their wedding day Lord Hertford told his son that 'you can still call it off and we'll send everyone home, just say no,' according to evidence submitted by Lord Yarmouth to the High Court. The court heard that Lord Yarmouth had expected to inherit the family's Ragley estate in Warwickshire when he turned 30. By the age of just 21 he had already received more than £4.2million in land and property. 'William's behaviour started to change before his marriage,' the Marquess of Hertford said in a witness statement. 'William asked me to confirm that I would hand over Ragley Hall to him on turning 30. It was like he had promised Kelsey that they would be moving into Ragley Hall, he was persistent. 'I am disappointed at William's lack of achievement. I am proud of the fact that he went to college but made a mistake at university and didn't graduate. William has not followed a profession or obtained qualifications or experience to take over the running of Ragley Hall.' He added: 'The tipping point in my deliberations of passing the running of Ragley Hall to William at age 30 was a letter received from him to my wife, Lady Hertford dated 25 July 2018 questioning my mental ability to continue running Ragley Hall. 'I do not consider William to be an appropriate person to take over the running of Ragley Hall. He has not done anything to make me change my mind.' In his judgment, Master James Brightwell added that, in recording meetings, Lord Yarmouth was 'looking for ammunition for a dispute' and questioning his father's mental ability was a 'casus belli' – an act or situation provoking or justifying war. Despite losing the court case and having his family woes aired in public, Lord Yarmouth said in a statement afterwards that he was 'disappointed' but also 'open to reconciliation' with his parents. 'My purpose has been to seek to ensure the protection of my family's interests in the trusts, and in particular the welfare of my children as beneficiaries,' he said. 'I came to the court with the sincere hope of finding a fair and lasting resolution to a fraught situation. 'As much as it is painful for both sides, my wife Kelsey and I remain open to reconciliation with my parents. Privately we have made this clear to Lord and Lady Hertford.' He had previously told the court how the family feud had left him needing 'professional help and counselling to deal with trauma as a consequence'. The family can trace its roots back to Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour. Ragley Hall, in Alcester, was built in the 1680s and sits within 450 acres of landscaped gardens, 4,500 acres of farmland and 1,000 acres of woodland. It has been occupied permanently by the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford since the 1960s when Lord Hertford's father made it his main residence. The court heard it was previously the intention of Lord Hertford to allow Lord Yarmouth, his eldest son, to inherit the estate when he turned 30. However, from the time of his marriage to Lady Yarmouth, relations deteriorated to the extent that Lord Yarmouth is also now estranged from his three siblings, who also opposed his court battle to remove the trustees. Lord and Lady Hertford have also never met their young grandsons, Clement, five, and three-year-old Jocelyn. As part of his claim, Lord Yarmouth claimed that when he sought a more central role to the running of the estate in 2018, one employee suggested that he should start by 'cleaning the lavatories.' The court heard that Earl Yarmouth had also fallen out with his younger brother, Lord Edward Seymour. Edward said: 'Our relationship started to go downhill however when William went to Cirencester Royal Agricultural University as William met some individuals who brought out the worst in him – William became pompous and showed signs of entitlement. Flaws that have been further exacerbated since his marriage to Kelsey.' The family feud goes further. After being invited to Lord Yarmouth's wedding, his aunt, Lady Carolyn, the Marquess' sister, replied calling him: 'Little Lord Fauntleroy '. The letter was signed off: 'You pompous a**/t**/p***k – take your pick… Your ever-so loving aunt'. Lord Yarmouth now runs a business selling an award-winning elderflower liqueur called St Maur. Responding to claims that he was an entitled 'toff' in an interview with The Telegraph in March, Lord Yarmouth said: 'If I am such a useless grifter then how have we made what is considered to be the world's best floral liqueur?'
The Independent
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Peevish hereditary peers are not qualified to make rules for the rest of us
In the House of Lords they are still busy debating a Bill that will decide whether 92 assorted dukes, earls, viscounts and hereditary barons should continue to have a role in making laws for the rest of us. Talking of which, my eye was caught this week by a messy family saga involving the 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, who, along with 666 blue-blooded colleagues, was peremptorily booted out of the Upper Chamber in the great Blair purge of aristos in 1999. Only 92 hereditaries were left standing. The current row among the Ailesbury clan is over money. Theirs is a complicated family tree, since the late marquess, 98, (aka, Michael Burden-Bruce) had been married and divorced three times before settling down with an exotic former fashion model who once dated Frank Sinatra, Teresa Marshall de Paoli. Ms Marshall de Paoli , 89, says members of the family have accused her of pushing her late husband, the marquess, out of the window – a claim she denies. But before we consider the subsequent unpleasantness over his estate, it is as well to retrace how the marquess inherited his title – and with it the honour of sitting in the House of Lords for 25 years. Michael Brudenell-Bruce, or MB-B, as we will shorthand him, is descended from Lord Cardigan, who led the Light Brigade into a smog of doom ('someone had blundered') in Crimea in 1854. The historian Cecil Woodham-Smith's definitive account of the battle described the Earl of Cardigan as handsome and gallant, but arrogant, snobbish and short-tempered – an almost caricature nobleman. The Cardigan title dates back to 1611, when the first Earl picked up the title for £1,000. The first Marquess of Ailesbury was a modestly active MP in the early 19th century. He was also, in the way of the aristocracy, the holder of several other offices: the 1st Viscount Savernake of Savernake Forest (dating back to the Battle of Hastings) and the 1st Earl Bruce of Whorlton in Yorkshire. MB-B, therefore, had the pick of three titles and, initially at least, preferred to be known as Viscount Savernake. Are you keeping up? So far as the Ailesbury title goes, we can skip to the 7th Marquess, who also married three times, and who moved out of England for tax purposes in the late 1960s. By now a stockbroker, MB-B inherited the top title in 1974, but didn't make his maiden speech as a marquess until five years later. In a 1979 House of Lords debate on 'The English Language: Deterioration in Usage,' MB-B told of his anguish at a British Leyland car advertisement that contained a split infinitive. He spoke of writing to the BL boss, Lord Stokes, to complain. He went on to deplore the words 'ongoing' and 'upcoming', before sitting down after nine minutes. Hansard records few contributions in his subsequent quarter of a century in the Upper Chamber. And so to his death in May last year. The police were called to his home after TMdP claimed to have found her partner lying in a pool of blood while she was looking for their cat, Honeybun. PC Katherine Taylor told the inquest that her 'main concern at that point was the cat.' MB-B had two belts around his arms, apparently to prevent him from trying to break his fall. Whether the belts were attached by himself or another hand was a matter of conjecture, since Honeybun, the only potential witness, was saying nothing. Another police officer, Sergeant Carla McCrae, said she found it 'unusual' when TMdP told her MB-B 'must have fallen out of the window trying to save the cat.' According to TMdP, MB-B had previously talked about assisted dying, but complained that 'lefty nurses' stopped doctors from helping people to die. In a striking hereditary echo through the ages, the coroner said that MB-B was probably aware of the circumstances of the death of his mother, the Countess of Cardigan, who fell from a seventh-floor window at the Savoy Hotel in 1937. She reportedly left a note describing her family as a 'feckless and unstable lot.' The coroner in the present case returned a verdict of suicide and then the family feud burst out into public view. It transpired that the 9th marquess, one David Brudenell-Brice, was estranged from his father. DB-B has been involved in a number of legal actions over family assets over the years. At one point he was reported to be claiming Jobseeker's Allowance while training to be a lorry driver. Sadly, DB-B's own son, Thomas B-B (aka, Viscount Savernake) appears to have taken TMdP's side of the rows that have been extensively chronicled by the Daily Mail. And he himself has been unsuccessfully fighting his sister, Bo Bruce (aka, Lady Catherine Anna Brudenell-Bruce), who was a runner-up on the 2012 TV series, The Voice, over a £2.4m house left to them by her mother, Lady Rosamond, former Countess of Cardigan. Bo's relationship with her father was a troubled one: she was arrested and cautioned for slashing the tyres of his silver Audi ('It was very therapeutic'). Space does not allow me to do full justice to the legal blood-letting over the years. Bo described her family to The Times as 'eccentric and painfully dysfunctional'. This is Shakespeare with a touch of Coronation Street. It is EastEnders as scripted by PG Wodehouse. Neighbours with a flick of Julian Fellowes. The saga of the Ailesburys may be an unedifying one, but such family feuds and miseries are commonplace throughout society. The aristocracy are, arguably, no worse than the rest of us, but nor are they better than those of us without titles, hand-me-down wealth, ancient forestry or crumbling mansions. The mystery is why the hereditary principle took such a hold on us for so long. Blair only managed to get most of the aristocracy out of the House of Lords in 1999 by accepting a compromise, whereby 92 of them remained – with periodic by-elections when one falls off the perch. Not even Wodehouse could do justice to these plebiscites. In the mostrecent by-election, following the death of Lord Brougham and Vaux, there were 259 votes and 14 candidates. The winner, with 133 votes, was the 8th Baron Camoys. It makes the recent conclave in the Sistine Chapel look positively futuristic. Lord Camoys, an Eton-educated conservative, is there because of someone called Ralph de Camoys (d. 1336), who was a favourite of Edward II. So, who better to call the shots for British citizens today? And yet, we are still arguing about the latest proposal to dump the aristocracy from any role in making laws for the rest of us. Endless justifications are still being trundled out by peevish peers: hereditariness brings continuity and experience; geographical and social diversity (yes, really!); pragmatic stability; a public-minded sense of duty. And so on. The Bill is currently at the report stage and, notwithstanding these persuasive debating points, will almost certainly pass. And that will be the end of the road for the 8th Baron Camoys and his colleagues, along with the hereditary principle in British public life. Apart, obviously, from the monarchy.
Times
23-05-2025
- Business
- Times
Countess of Yarmouth: Our disinheritance is a tragedy
Every morning this week, the Earl of Yarmouth, William Seymour, has risen from his bed in the early hours, pulled on his clothes and gone to work on his family farm. To his wife, the work ethic that drives the routine picking elder blossoms for their liqueur business stands in stark contrast to assumptions that have come to be made about her husband. Because in addition to being a businessman, the earl is the scion of one of Britain's grandest aristocratic families, whose £85 million ancestral estate centres on the 345-year-old Ragley Hall. 'There's this talk of entitlement and that William is a lazy, entitled toff,' the Countess of Yarmouth, Kelsey Seymour, said. 'Well, I can tell you he's getting up at four o'clock in
Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Aristocrat who fell from window had cut son and granddaughter from will
A rift in one of Britain's grandest families led to the Marquess of Ailesbury cutting not only his heir out of his will but also his granddaughter, Bo Bruce, who appeared on the BBC's The Voice. Michael Brudenell-Bruce, 98, fell to his death from a window of the home he shared with his long-term partner, Teresa Marshall de Paoli, 89, a former model and novelist, last May. The aristocrat had been estranged from his heir, David, 72, for decades, but three months before his death they met for tea at the request of his ten-year-old granddaughter, Lady Sophie. However, the meeting did not lead to a reconciliation. The will, which has now been approved for probate, reveals that Brudenell-Bruce left all his personal possessions
