The Duke of Marlborough has been pictured arriving at Oxford Crown Court this morning after being accused of strangling his estranged wife Edla. Charles James Spencer-Churchill, a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Princess Diana, will be asked to formally enter pleas to the charges against him today. 

Appearing in court at the start of last month, the duke denied three charges of intentional strangulation against Edla Marlborough between November 2022 and April 2024. High Wycombe Magistrates' Court heard that the 70-year-old is accused of striking her several times following an argument in the garden of their home before putting his hands around her neck on November 13, 2022.

The court was told that on April 23, 2023, the duke allegedly grabbed his wife’s hair before hitting her with a closed fist and then grabbing her by the neck. On a separate occasion on January 29, 2024, the aristocrat is accused of pushing her on the bed and assaulting her after putting his hands tightly around her neck. 

The twice-married aristocrat inherited his dukedom in 2014, and is well known to have a long battle with drug addiction in the past. 

Mr Spencer-Churchill is a first cousin, three times removed, of Sir Winston and a distant relative of the late Princess Diana through the Spencer family.

He married his second wife, Welsh ceramicist Edla Griffiths, in 2002 but they separated in 2024.

They are said to have met while she was living in Chelsea and working on her art, and they wed after dating for seven years.
They had a daughter, the equestrian Lady Araminta Spencer-Churchill in 2007, and a son Lord Caspar Spencer-Churchill in 2008.

The Duke’s ancestral family home is Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, which is owned and managed by Blenheim Palace Heritage Foundation.

In a statement, the group said: "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."