Angus, it appears, was notably weak to unlucky enterprise dealings – reportedly a end result of his heat, trusting character. In 1985, the yr that he inherited the Dukedom of Manchester from his older brother Kim, Angus was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud towards the Natwest Bank. He was acquitted, nonetheless, after the decide stated that he lacked the competence to deliberately defraud the financial institution, and was as an alternative a sufferer of others’ manipulation. ‘On a business scale of one to ten,’ the decide reported,’ the Duke is a one or much less, and even that flatters him.’
The verdict didn’t go his approach in 1991, nonetheless, when the eleventh Duke of Manchester was convicted of fraud in the United States. Angus spent three years in the Federal Correctional Institution in Petersburg, Virginia, and after serving his sentence, he married for a fourth time and discovered work as a tour information, providing US vacationers the likelihood to spend a day with a ‘real life Duke’. When he died in 2002, Angus was the final of his dynasty to sit in the House of Lords. It was a second that Wainwright says ‘heralded a finality to the import of the House of Montagu.’
In one final twist of controversy, Angus disowned his son, Alexander, for an illegal attempt to enter Canada in 1991. Alexander went on to marry Wendy Buford in 1993, with whom he enjoyed 13 years of marriage and welcomed two children, Alex Jr and Ashley. The couple divorced, however, and in 2009, it was revealed that Alexander’s marriage had been bigamous, as he had not divorced his earlier spouse, mannequin Marion Stoner, till three years into his marriage with Wendy.
A decide presiding over the case declared that, in spite of the bigamy, Alexander was nonetheless father to his youngsters, who subsequently remained official heirs to the Montagu title. As such, Alex Jr will, at one level, inherit the title of 14th Duke of Manchester.
From the proper hand of King Charles I to Canadian gold mines, automotive crashes, and a tour information Duke. The House of Montagu has lots of drama for a household you may by no means have heard of.
