A genteel revolution over aristocratic succession

the stately homes of England have you Dibble they stand to prove the upper classes have still the upper hand Britain in 2013 women can run the country they can rule the country but they're still unlikely to inherit the State Department advance the fun of the eldest son it's not an easy job people look at a house like this and a girl wouldn't be capable families would have daughters daughters daughters daughters daughters just to have a son you are second not only second best but utterly superfluous to requirements why do we change this just for the sake of change there are few squeaking females make a big fuss about something back in our mo 14 18 1,500 you lived in a Great Hall and that this is the Great Hall initiative a great hall um rather grander than a kitchen Frances Fulford family have lived in this house for the best part of a thousand years they're old school landed gentry your wife and children would sit up had a little chamber of privacy there's no hiding in a chamber these days but the old rules still apply when it comes to who inherits the estate the men always take precedence so Frances Fulford got the place over his older sisters why change it for no particular reason what is the big reason for changing it this is unfair on women why did unfair on women everybody knew the score which meant Frances was the 25th or so Fulford to get the house three thousand acres and more than 20 cottages so your children doings not the other yeah with a shotgun pablor oh yeah they go they ping along in line with tradition Arthur Fulford will take over from his father he's trying to get some fishing twin sister Mathilda doesn't get a look-in Mathilda doesn't mind out at all she has no problem have you asked her I don't even I didn't need to her it's more of a man thing which is terribly sexist such a ridiculous comment because there was you had to be a pretty tough guy to hold places down we don't need nights to fight on the land you just need somebody's good manager in a state but it's work the point is is worked as I says work professor dirtier Nellie why Chuck away traditions that a centuries old just because you won't change because if we hadn't Chuck's way traditions at a centuries old we wouldn't have had a female Prime Minister not just a female Prime Minister but a queen by Francis Fulford mocks the new law that means the royal baby will be heir to the throne no matter its gender it's some light bulb moment in a bath Cameron had and it's lovely soundbite isn't it we'll do a sound byte modernize I'm against frankly were a lot more interesting and not more bigger problems in this country than farting about with the royal succession three counties along in the seat of England's premier aristocrat the Duke of Norfolk there's a whiff of genteel rebellion in the West Sussex air arendelle Castle is securely in the hands of its eighteenth Duke he inherited 30,000 acres of the finest land in England and London properties worth around a hundred million pounds I haven't got a lot of ancestral portraits but there are one or two interesting ones here on the very edge of the estate the Earl of baltha the Duke of Norfolk's brother-in-law no less inspired by the change to royal succession wants different rules for the aristocracy - he's been the beneficiary his great-great uncle the conservative Prime Minister Arthur Balfour was in oval din 1922 and it's passed down the male line ever since the day I inherited some he just said Robbie I think you'll find it's still useful for booking a restaurant the West End and that's about it and is it no not really because nobody who takes a booking anymore practically speaks English and certainly doesn't stun titles and over here we have that one for girls yeah a little bit closer to you the next generation yeah the Earl and his wife only have daughters so his title and old family portraits will go to a male relative unless a bill going through the House of Lords to change the automatic entitlement of men in the aristocracy succeeds as Tony Blair would say why Hey why shouldn't it change when everything else to do with female rights has been changed why should this be the one thing that is not Roddy's wife lady Tessa is the elder sister of the Duke of Norfolk and I love arendelle if a quality existed in her rarefied circles she would have got the castle as eldest child but it went during her brother she's far too well-bred to discuss being passed over but she's fighting for her eldest daughter to become Countess of bow so I was given such pressure from rods father to have a son and it it was very very difficult for me one of my ancestors was Anberlin she was given the most terrible time from Henry because she couldn't produce a son she in fact produced the daughter and look at the wonderful daughter she produced she produced Elizabeth the first so this is about equality in the most privileged section of British society or is it scratch the surface and it seems we're not quite talking about revolution son inherits but if not it goes to the eldest daughter so are you still saying that boy you shouldn't Hera if there is a boy but it's just if there isn't a boy the girl should get her yes some unbid a halfway house so it's not exactly gender equality well it's getting it's getting it accepted it's moving in that direction moving in that direction Liza Campbell wants total equality for girls she's the second daughter of the Earl of Corder and her grandfather fell off a ladder when she was born so horrified was he to hear of another girl perhaps not much has changed in Britain's social elite since the sense of entitlement in the men is so strong and the response is hostile and sneering one person I discussed it with ended up the well that position came to an end when he said well you do realize that we will abort the female fetuses and I just thought you know I don't know how to carry on I dare be real wear a hat like that Harbor I really can't bear that none of the aristocrats we asked to defend male succession was willing to appear on television which is why we went to plain old mr. fulford a squire in his 1,000 years of Devon history I mean fact we don't have an inherited title doesn't mean to say we don't act in the same way as if we did have an inherited title and some people might say but being full full of poop would this rather grander than being law blinking stop or somewhere who made his grandfather made his money from war profiteering um I might say that actually primogeniture here is about long-held family tradition but the Fulford take their cue from Britain's aristocratic families even though unlike the titled folk there's no rule laid down that males have to inherit this place if you had daughters no sons what would you do with great looking for eldest daughter what about if you had three daughters and then a really very good male nephew oh well that'd be another issue altogether and I'd have to think about that one quite hard one time let's be the old loving being the heir apparent of course Arthur can rest easy let's face it he's never got worried but what of this campaign to modernize a system many people believe to antiquated to bother with lady Tessa missed out on what could have been her birthright in an equal world Roderick bouncer doesn't want his title to slip away from his eldest daughter lady Liza hopes for the next generation of Matilda's things might just be different but the government shows no sign of wanting to get involved in this particular aristocratic tussle but bloody dogbert come here boy you bud or butt butt so whatever the Royals done here don't be surprised if male surfers are running this place for another thousand you

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 19,024

Keywords: royal, baby, aristocracy, fulford, succession, channel 4 news, katie razzall, video

Id: qBPi7gReO70

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 12 2013