The Earl of Devon has been forced to sell his family heirlooms to make money after his marriage licence was withdrawn.
Lord Devon sparked controversy when he refused to let a gay couple hold their civil partnership ceremony at his ancestral home Powderham Castle last year because it "went against" his religion.
Devon County Council took exception to his discrimination and revoked his licence, leaving the Earl unable to hold any sort of wedding ceremony at the Exeter estate.
Since then, the Earl has lost almost £200,000 in marriage-related income, forcing him to auction some of his family's 17th century literature to pay for urgent castle renovations.
He insists the sale of the books is unrelated to the loss of his marriage licence, but admitted his home was in desperate need of repairs he estimates will cost upwards of £100,000.
Lord Devon told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper: "We need to raise quite a large sum of money at the moment because we have done a lot of investment work on the castle.
"We are selling the books to try and raise money because we have invested a lot of cash to provide new facilities for the public. We cannot afford to have a large overdraft. So we saw it necessary to get the finances straight and to pay off the overdraft."
Powderham is not the only castle to refuse to allow gay couples to marry on its premises.
Trustees at Scotland's Castle of Mey - the former home of Britain's Queen Mother - banned everything but Christian weddings from the estate in March.
They claimed the late Queen Mother - who died in 2002 - would have wanted all ceremonies to be presided over by a priest or vicar.
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