A Napier [New Zealand] antiques dealer has claimed that his family are the rightful heirs to one of Britain’s most famous dynasties, which owns the castle used in the Harry Potter movies.
Kevin Percy, 74, believes his family was cheated out of inheriting the Earl of Northumberland’s massive estate, now conservatively valued at $685m.
He has started a bold bid asking British authorities, including the Queen, to exhume the bodies of two suspected relatives for DNA
tests, which he says would prove or disprove his claim. The two men died in 1560 and 1716.
His bid targets one of Britain’s most celebrated noble families, which dominated the Middle Ages. The earldom owns nearly 50,000 hectares of land in Britain.
Alnwick Castle, the family home in Northumberland, northern England, which celebrated its 700th anniversary this week, was used to film the Hogwarts scenes in the Harry Potter movies…
Read the full article by Phil Kitchin in the November 21, 2009 edition of The Southland Times.
