Understanding the Laws of British Primogeniture…With Humor

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Understanding the Laws of British Primogeniture…With Humor

January 6, 2008 by Vic

Watch Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in this hilarious 5-minute sketch, titled The Duke of Northampton, in which the duke (Fry) discusses his “ownership” of Huntington Castle and his responsibilities to keep his estate intact for the next heir.

(Click on the bolded words for live links.) For another take on primogeniture laws and on the fee entail, click here to read my post on Jane Austen’s World titled The Fee Entail in Pride and Prejudice.

For other, more serious resources, click on these links:

The History of Primogeniture Laws and its Effect Upon Landed Property, Courtney Stanhope Kenney, 1878, offers a more detailed and contemporary analysis.
The Laws of Primogeniture and the Transition from Landed Aristocracy to Industrial Democracy, Graziella Bertocchi, 2006, PDF Document
Law, Land, and Family: Aristocratic Inheritance in England, 1300-1800, Eileen Spring, 1993. (Partial book available.)

Technorati Tags: Fry and Laurie,, Primogeniture With Humor

Posted in Primogeniture, Regency World | Tagged British Inheritance Laws | 3 Comments

3 Responses

on January 13, 2008 at 10:15 BML

How interesting that the YOUNGEST son was the one who got to choose first in the old Welsh way.

The other comment I have — I had forgotten how HARD it was to type papers on manual typewriters and to type the footnotes — I was reading the manuscript from your first link and noticed one case where the footnote was too long for the bottom of one page and continued to the bottom of the next. Boy am I glad for word processing software!!

i was also tickled to see the old French in the footnote on page 7 of that manuscript.
on January 14, 2009 at 12:49 The Regency Estate: How it was Apportioned « Jane Austen’s World

[…] Understanding the Laws of British Primogeniture With Humor […]
on November 1, 2009 at 16:41 The Viscount and the Toll Keeper’s Daughter: How Thomas Thynne Never Became the Marquess of Bath « Jane Austen's World

[…] Understanding the Laws of British Primogeniture With Humor […]

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