Alexander Thynn , 7th Marquess of Bath Alexander George Thynn , 7th Marquess of Bath ( born 6 May 1932 ) , styled Viscount Weymouth between 1946 and 1992 , is an English politician , artist and author . He was born with the surname Thynne but adopted the spelling Thynn in 1976 . He is ranked 359th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2009 , with an estimated wealth of £157 million . He has written several novels . Early life and education . Although born in London , he grew up at his family ' s seat , Longleat , a great Elizabethan house set in Wiltshire parkland landscaped in the 18th century by Capability Brown . After attending Ludgrove School and Eton College he was commissioned into the Life Guards as a lieutenant in 1951 . He was then educated at Christ Church , Oxford , where he was president of the Bullingdon Club , and travelled across Europe . Political career . Realising the strength in diversity amongst people he grew to believe that Wessex would be better off as a devolved region within the United Kingdom and stood in the February 1974 General Election as a Wessex Regionalist . Shortly after the election he was one of the founders of the Wessex Regionalist Party . He stood for the party in the first ever elections to the European Parliament in 1979 . After inheriting the marquessate from his father in 1992 he sat in the House of Lords as a Liberal Democrat . Amongst other things he spoke on the need for devolution for the regions of England , until he lost his place in the House of Lords after the Labour Government ' s reforms excluded most of the hereditary peers . Personal life . In 1969 he married Hungarian born Anna Gael Gyarmathy , by whom he has two children , Lady Lenka Thynn and Ceawlin Thynn , Viscount Weymouth ( pronounced ' See awe lin ' ) who were sent to the local comprehensive school . After his father ' s death , he sacked Christopher , his brother , as estate controller and evicted him from his home . He is known for his colourful style of dress which originated from a period as an art student in Paris during the 1950s , and is a prolific amateur painter who has decorated rooms of his home with erotic scenes from the Kama Sutra among other sources of inspiration . He has openly had sexual relations with over 70 women during his marriage , and has installed many of them in estate cottages . He refers to these women as " wifelets " . The peer passed the management of the business to his son Viscount Weymouth early in 2010 . By one account , the present Viscount intends to evict the wifelets from their estate cottages , and possibly even remove his Lordship ' s murals . Appearances and media . In 1999 , he appeared in series 6 , episode 4 of " Time Team " , which dealt with the excavation of a cave in the Cheddar Gorge , an area of land owned by him . In March 2009 , he appeared in episode 4 of " Heston ' s Feasts " . " The Marquess of Bath " , a book by Nesta Wyn Ellis , initially written with Thynn ' s co - operation , was published in the autumn of 2010 . Lord Bath ' s autobiography , collectively called " Strictly Private to Public Exposure " , was first published as a series by Artnik Books , and since 2002 has been republished by Top Spot Publishing . His other screen credits include an episode of " Globe Trekker " . Artist and potter Grayson Perry interviewed the Marquess in the third of his three - part 2012 documentary series " All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry " which focussed on Britain ' s upper class .