The Duke of Marlborough, formerly known as Jamie Blandford, has been charged with intentional strangulation. Charles James Spencer-Churchill, a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, is accused of three offences between November 2022 and May 2024, Thames Valley Police said.
The 70-year-old has been summonsed to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday following his arrest on May 13 last year. The three charges of non-fatal intentional strangulation are alleged to have taken place in in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, against the same person.
Spencer-Churchill, known to his family as Jamie, is the 12th Duke of Marlborough and a member of one of Britain's most aristocratic families. He is well known to have had a long battle with drug addiction in the past.
Related to wartime prime minister Sir Winston - a first cousin, three times removed - and also distantly to Diana through the Spencer line, Spencer-Churchill inherited his dukedom in 2014, following the death of his father, the 11th Duke of Marlborough.
Prior to this, the twice-married Spencer-Churchill was the Marquess of Blandford, and also known as Jamie Blandford.
His ancestral family home is the 300-year-old Blenheim Palace - Sir Winston's birthplace - in Woodstock.
But the duke does not own the 18th century baroque palace - and has no role in the running of the residence and vast estate, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site and a popular visitor attraction with parklands designed by "Capability" Brown.
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