A colourful aristocrat and infamous ladies man left his £23 million fortune to his wife and family but snubbed what he called his harem of 74 "wifelets".

Alexander Thynn, 7th Marquess of Bath, was an eccentric character known for his beard, long hair and brightly-coloured clothes.

He also owned Longleat Safari and Adventure Park in Wiltshire, England, which boats of being "the UK's Number One Safari Park' and "a land of adventure where lions roam, tigers stalk and monkeys swing".

Lord Bath died last year from Covid-19 aged 87, leaving a fortune of £14.4 million after taxes and debts were settled, according to The Sun.

Lord Bath left his fortune to his wife Anna who he met in 1969 (
Image:
Clive Postlethwaite/Shutterstock)

He bequeathed £1 million to his wife of 51 years., Anna Gael, 77,

The rest of his estate including his art collection was put in a trust for her and their children and for the upkeep of Longleat.

But nothing was left for his string of girlfriends who he referred to affectionately as "wifelets".

Lord Bath and Anna got married in 1969 and in sixties fashion maintained an "open" love life.

It was an arrangement he took full advantage of, earning him the nickname 'The Loins of Longleat' from some quarters.

Lord Bath at Longleat House in Wiltshire with journalist Petronella Wyatt (
Image:
Murray Sanders/ANL/Shutterstock)

He is survived by his son Ceawlin Thynn, Viscount Weymouth, daughter Lady Lenka Thynn and another daughter, Sophie, from one of his girlfriends.

Lord Bath and his son fell out in 2013. Thynn took over the running of their 900-acre estate and removed murals of heaven and hell his father had painted.

Lord Bath refused to attend his son's wedding to TV chef Emma McQuiston over the incident, but the murals were later returned.

Model Yasmin Le Bon drinking champagne with Lord Bath in Longleat (
Image:
South West News Service/Shutterstock)

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The aristocrat stood for parliament in the 1974 general election as a "regionalist" calling for Wessex to become a devolved region. He was not elected.

He went on to found the Wessex Regionalist Party and ran for the European Parliament in its first ever elections in 1979, again without success.

He later sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat, but lost his place in reforms by the then Labour government.