Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey, is supposed to be an expert on all aspects of upper-class society. Some of the finer details of rights of succession within the peerage, however, seem to have eluded him, as Alistair Lexden pointed out in a letter published in slightly edited form (omitting a vital point) in the London Evening Standard on 21 December. The full letter follows.
Dear Sir
Julian Fellowes rails against male primogeniture which he thinks prevented his wife becoming Countess Kitchener of Khartoum (“I’m surprised it’s even legal that only men inherit titles”, 19 December).
The famous war hero for whom the title was created in 1902 was a well-known misogynist, widely rumoured to be gay. Since he had no children, the title only survived through a rarely used device known as a special remainder. This decreed that the earldom should pass to Kitchener’s eldest brother “and the heirs male of his body”. It would have been quite possible to have included provision for a woman to inherit. Kitchener, a woman-hater, specifically ruled that out.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords