David Armstrong-Jones

**David, 2nd Earl of Snowdon** (David Albert Charles Armstrong-Jones, born November 3, 1961) is a member of british royal family and english furniture maker. He is the eldest child of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and Antony, Earl of Snowdon. He is 25th in Line of succession to british throne.

He has a younger sister Lady Sarah (b.1964).

In 1993, He married Serena Stanhope. The couple has two children, Charles, Viscount Linley (b.1999) and Lady Margarita (b.2002), who are 26th and 27th in Line of succession.

## Early life

Armstrong-Jones was born on November 3, 1961 at Clarence House in London.

He was christened on December 19, 1961 in the Music Room at Buckingham Palace. His godparents are Queen Elizabeth II, Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, Patrick Plunket, 7th Baron Plunket, Lord Rupert Nevill, and Simon Phipps.

## Education

At the age of five, Linley began lessons in the Buckingham Palace schoolroom with his cousin Prince Andrew. He went to several independent schools: first, to Gibbs Pre-Preparatory School in Kensington in London, now known as Collingham College. Followed by the pre-preparatory section of Ashdown House School, East Sussex, then on to Millbrook House School, near Abingdon, in Oxfordshire, and finally to Bedales School, where he developed a passion for arts and crafts. From 1980 to 1982 he studied at Parnham House in the small town of Beaminster in Dorset, for craftsmen in wood

## Personal Life

In 1990, Linley took legal action against the *Today* newspaper for an article accusing him of "rowdy behaviour in a pub". He was eventually awarded £30,000 damages.

On 8 October 1993, Linley married the Hon. Serena Alleyne Stanhope (born 1 March 1970, Limerick, Ireland), daughter of Viscount Petersham (later the 12th Earl of Harrington) at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster. There were 650 guests in attendance. Through her father, Stanhope descends from Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, one of the illegitimate children of Charles II of England.

He and his wife have two children:

* Charles Patrick Inigo Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (born 1 July 1999 at Portland Hospital in London), an Old Etonian who studied product design engineering at Loughborough University
* Lady Margarita Elizabeth Rose Alleyne Armstrong-Jones (born 14 May 2002 at Portland Hospital in London), a former student at St Mary's, Ascot and Tudor Hall School, Banbury, who is currently studying at Oxford Brookes University

From 2000 until 2002, Linley, his wife and son lived at Kensington Palace with his mother, Princess Margaret, in her declining years. On 8 April 2002, Linley, along with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Earl of Wessex, "stood guard" at the lying-in-state of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. This Vigil of the Princes had taken place only once before, during the lying-in-state of George V in 1936.

In October and November 2007, rumours circulated on the internet suggesting that a member of the British royal family was the victim of blackmail. The first confirmation that the royal in the extortion attempt was Viscount Linley came from the journalist Nicholas Davies. Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan tried to extort £50,000 from Linley in September by threatening to release video footage showing sex acts and cocaine use (allegedly by Linley and a male royal aide) on a mobile phone. Linley contacted the police. Strachan and McGuigan were arrested after showing their video footage to an undercover detective, and at trial were sentenced to five years in prison.

In 2011, Linley's daughter, Margarita Armstrong-Jones, was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. In 2012, his son, styled by courtesy as Viscount Linley since January 2017, was appointed by the Queen as a page of honour.

The family has three homes: a flat in Chelsea, London; a cottage on the Daylesford estate in Gloucestershire; and the Château d'Autet in the Luberon, Provence.

He and his wife separated in February 2020, and a spokesperson confirmed they are to obtain a divorce

## Titles and succession

* November 3, 1961 - January 13, 2017: *The Honorable David Albert Charles, Viscount Linley*
* January 3, 2017 - present *The 2nd Earl of Snowdon*

When he was born, he was 5th in line of succession to the British throne; as of May 2023, he is 25th, and the first person who is not a descendant of Queen Elizabeth II. He was styled as **Viscount Linley** until 2017 and known professionally as **David Linley**