Castle Howard is considered one of the grandest country seats in United Kingdom and has appeared a number of times in film most notably as the home of the Marchmain family in Brideshead Revisited. However, the drama of real life is playing out between brothers Simon and Nicholas Howard as they fight for control of the estate. For the previous 30 years, Simon had run the estate after taking over for their father and managed to keep the estate from being sold off in the same manner as many other country homes of the nobility. But when Simon developed cancer, he resigned his position which has lead to his older brother requesting that he vacate the property despite Simon’s recovery and desire to resume his duties. Currently, the eviction is pending with no indications if the brothers intend to take this dispute all the way through the court system.
See Lisa Kjellsson, The battle of Brideshead: cruel twist to family saga sees heir evict younger brother from 17th-century pile, The Telegraph, December 27, 2015.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
