The Duke of Marlborough is accused of strangling his estranged wife, it has emerged.
Charles James Spencer-Churchill, a relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, is accused of three intentional strangulation offences against Edla Marlborough between November 2022 and May 2024.
The 70-year-old was summonsed to appear at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday following his arrest in May last year but the court heard he was "unable to attend".
District Judge Kamlesh Rana said the case will be listed for a plea hearing in front of the Chief Magistrate at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court on January 5.
Court documents say the three charges of non-fatal intentional strangulation against his estranged wife are alleged to have taken place in in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
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.
The duke 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.
Edla, 57, became the Duchess of Marlborough when Spencer-Churchill inherited his dukedom following the death of his father, the 11th duke, in 2014.
The duke was previously married to Becky Few-Brown, the mother of his eldest son and heir George, a polo player and the current Marquess of 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 heritagesite and a popular visitor attraction with parklands designed by "Capability" Brown.
In 1994, the late duke brought legal action to ensure his son and heir would not be able to take control of the family seat.
The King hosted a reception at Blenheim Palace for European leaders in July 2024, and the Queen, then the Duchess of Cornwall, joined Spencer-Churchill for the unveiling of a bust of Sir Winston in the grounds of Blenheim in 2015.
The palace was also the scene of the theft of a £4.75 million golden toilet in 2019 after a gang of thieves smashed their way in and ripped out the fully functioning 18-carat lavatory.
