The Countess who found Tutankhamun then lost everything

Before Downton Abbey became famous on television, Highclere Castle was home to one of the most fascinating women of the Edwardian era.

Lady Almina Herbert, Countess of Carnarvon, was the illegitimate daughter of a Rothschild banker who married into one of Britain’s oldest aristocratic families. With her immense fortune, she rescued Highclere Castle from ruin and quietly financed the archaeological expeditions that led to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

But behind the glamour of Edwardian society lay scandal, forbidden love, and controversy. Rumors of an affair with Prince Victor Duleep Singh followed her through London society. Later she transformed Highclere into a wartime hospital, caring personally for wounded soldiers during World War I.

Yet despite saving the estate and funding one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history, her final years ended in exile, bankruptcy, and near obscurity.

This is the extraordinary story of the real countess of Highclere Castle — the woman behind the discovery of Tutankham