Duke of Marlborough charged with 3 counts of intentional strangulation

The Duke of Marlborough has been charged with three counts of intentional strangulation, police have said. 

Charles James Spencer-Churchill, 70, a relative of Princess Diana and Winston Churchill, is accused of three counts of intentional strangulation between November 2022 and May 2024.

The offences are alleged to have been committed in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, against the same person, Thames Valley Police said. 

He was arrested on May 13 last year following a police investigation and is set to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday, the force added. 

Charles became the 12th Duke of Marlborough after inheriting the title from his father John Spencer-Churchill who died in 2014 at the age of 88. 

His ancestral home is Blenheim Palace, the 300-year-old estate where Churchill was born, in Woodstock. 

The Duke, formerly known as Jamie Blandford, is a distant cousin of Princess Diana, and a relative of Winston Churchill, who was his first cousin three times removed.

He does not own Blenheim Palace, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site under the stewardship of his father. 

The palace is instead owned and managed by the Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation.

A spokesman for the foundation said: 'Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation is aware legal proceedings have been brought against the Duke of Marlborough.

'The foundation is unable to comment on the charges, which relate to the duke's personal conduct and private life, and which are subject to live, criminal proceedings. 

'The foundation is not owned or managed by the Duke of Marlborough, but by independent entities run by boards of trustees.'

Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in 1704.

It was a reward for his victory over the army of Louis XIV of France in the Spanish War of Succession.

The 200,000sq ft estate has 187 rooms, dwarfing Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

King Charles hosted a reception at the palace for more than 40 European leaders, including Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron, in July last year. 

A life-size statue of Churchill was also unveiled on the grounds of Blenheim Palace last year to mark 150 years since his birth.

The bronze sculpture - which depicts the wartime leader painting on a canvas - is permanently on display on the South Lawn of the estate. 

And in 2015 the Duke unveiled a bust of the late Prime Minister as part of the opening of a memorial garden honouring his life and legacy.