POWDERHAM CASTLE, Devon, England — In his 20s, Charles Courtenay left the drizzly English countryside where he grew up and moved to California. He met his first wife in a Las Vegas bar, didn’t talk much about his background, then drove her back to England and up the driveway of his family home — a 12th‑century castle with a sign that reads, “Long Live the Earl.”
Courtenay, who learned to surf at Topanga Beach and prefers to be called “Charlie,” is also the 19th Earl of Devon. When his father died in 2015 he inherited the earldom through a mostly male bloodline that stretches back to the Crusades. Even though he has three older sisters, the title and castle passed to him.
The title brings political power: a seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the U.K. Parliament — roughly the equivalent of the U.S. Senate. Courtenay is one of 92 hereditary peers out of more than 800 members of the Lords who inherited their places. That system dates to the Norman Conquest of 1066, when monarchs granted land in exchange for military service and counsel.
Now that arrangement is being dismantled. This month Parliament passed the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Act 2026, which abolishes the hereditary right to sit in the Lords. In a compromise, some of the current hereditary peers will remain in the chamber until they die, but they will no longer be able to pass seats to descendants.
Many observers say the change is overdue. “It is seemingly so wild that anybody in this day and age could inherit the right to legislate. It’s quite bonkers!” says Eleanor Doughty, author of Heirs and Graces: A History of the Modern British Aristocracy. “I think people do wonder about the legitimacy of these sorts of people.”
Symbols of Britain’s imperial and aristocratic past remain woven into public life. The royal family is a major landowner; the monarch retains ties to former colonies as head of state in some places; members of the Lords address one another as “noble lord” or “baroness”; judges still don white horsehair wigs. Doughty notes Britain never experienced a revolution on the scale of France’s, so the aristocracy was never fully toppled or widely redistributed.
Over time the Lords’ power was trimmed: reforms in 1911 and 1949 curtailed its authority; life peerages introduced in 1958 created lords appointed for life rather than by inheritance; and Tony Blair’s government in 1999 removed most hereditary peers. Still, 92 remained, including the Earl of Devon.
Aristocrats continue to hold disproportionate land and influence, reinforcing intergenerational wealth and access to elite schools and institutions. That concentration has long been a target for reformers.
Inside Powderham Castle, Courtenay is aware of the contradictions of his position. In many ways he fits the stereotype of a lord: white, male, educated at Eton and Cambridge, living in a castle. But he has pushed to change male primogeniture rules so women — including his sisters — can inherit titles. In 2013 succession laws for the royal family were modernized, but most aristocratic titles still favor sons.
“The patriarchy puts up lots of barriers to its removal,” Courtenay told NPR during a tour of Powderham. He opposed eliminating his hereditary seat but accepts the outcome. “I wish I could do more, but my time is up,” he said, adding that the House of Lords “does need to be more representative.”
Courtenay has also used his position to promote cultural and social change. After an ancestor, William “Kitty” Courtenay, was exiled for being gay, he restored Kitty’s portrait at the castle and now markets Powderham as a venue for LGBTQ weddings and pop concerts. In 2016 the estate hosted a major BBC music festival featuring Coldplay, Mumford & Sons and Stormzy. On the floor of the Lords last year he criticized the chamber as “gendered” and “discriminatory,” urging Parliament to move away from “negative associations with nobility and high rank.”
Among members reshaping the upper chamber is its youngest member, Carmen Smith, Baroness Smith of Llanfaes. She took her seat at 27 and stands out in a chamber whose average age is about 71 and that is roughly 70% male. With dyed pink hair and Doc Martens, Smith’s title reflects the public housing estate where she grew up; she did not attend private school. She says the similarity of voices in the Lords leads to repeated mistakes and defends reform from inside. “I’m one of the only voices in the room that’s speaking up for what the majority of the public think and believe,” she told NPR. “I’m working to get rid of my job. I don’t believe my position should exist.”
Public opinion aligns with calls for wider reform. A 2024 YouGov poll found only one in seven Britons view the House of Lords positively, and a 2025 poll showed broad support for changes beyond the government’s plan — for example, 71% supported restricting the number of seats. The Lords currently has no cap and at over 800 members is among the largest legislative bodies in the world. Most members are not elected: life peers are appointed by the prime minister, some seats are reserved for Church of England bishops, and others come from party allocations.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer campaigned in 2024 on a roadmap: abolish hereditary seats, set a mandatory retirement age of 80 for the remaining lords, and eventually replace the chamber with an upper house more representative of the country, all by summer 2029. The 2026 act is the first major step in that agenda.
Back in Devon, Courtenay says he wants to remain part of the conversation as reform continues. He has floated ideas such as electing seats by region or profession, or even experimenting with lottery or jury‑duty‑style selection. After centuries of family service in government, he believes hereditary peers can still offer “a little bit of longer‑term memory” to reforms, arguing they are “by definition, somewhat longer term” than those tied to five‑year electoral cycles.
Whatever comes next, the recent legislation marks a clear end to the principle that parliamentary power can be inherited as property. Courtenay will keep his castle — but not the right to pass a seat in the House of Lords to his heirs.