Lord Sackville's son by a married Spanish dancer sued for Knole and the peerage, and the court ruled all her children illegitimate

Lionel Sackville-West met the Spanish dancer Pepita, born Josefa Durán, in Paris in 1852. She had married Juan Antonio de la Oliva in Madrid in January 1851 and never divorced him. Oliva lived until 1888. Lionel and Pepita had several children; she died at Arcachon on 10 March 1871 after a birth. Lionel became 2nd Baron Sackville and served as British minister in Washington, where his daughters were received as his family. The sons were placed on a farm in Natal. Lionel died at Knole on 3 September 1908. His son Ernest Henri Jean Baptiste, known as Henry, petitioned the Probate Division as the lawful heir, saying his parents had married. If he won, he took the barony and Knole, the house Elizabeth I gave the Sackvilles. The defendants were his sister Victoria and her husband, their cousin Lionel, who had inherited. The court found Pepita's husband was alive throughout, so every child was illegitimate. The case was dismissed in February 1910. Henry later took his own life^†. In 1912 Sir John Murray Scott, whose estate was £1,180,000, left Victoria £150,000 and his Paris collection. His family alleged undue influence. In 1913 a High Court jury upheld the will after 12 minutes. Victoria's daughter Vita could not inherit Knole in 1928 because the title passed to males. Charles, 4th Baron, gave Knole to the National Trust in 1947. Family members still live in part of it in 2026.