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Earl of Snowdon

Earldom of Snowdon
Blazon Arms of the 1st Earl of Snowdon at the time of the earldom's creation: Sable on a chevron argent, between in chief two fleurs-de-lis Or, and in base an eagle displayed Or, four pallets gules.[1]
Creation date	6 October 1961
Created by	Elizabeth II
Peerage	Peerage of the United Kingdom
First holder	Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
Present holder	David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon
Heir apparent	Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley
Remainder to	the 1st Earl's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten
Subsidiary titles	Viscount Linley Baron Armstrong-Jones (1999–2017)

Earl of Snowdon is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1961, together with the subsidiary titleofViscount Linley, of Nymans in the County of Sussex, by Queen Elizabeth II for her then-brother-in-law, Antony Armstrong-Jones,^[2] who married Princess Margaret in 1960.

Titles[edit]

Choice of names[edit]

Snowdon, chosen for the earldom, had previously been used for a peerage title with royal associations. The title of Baron Snowdon had been conferred in 1726 along with the Dukedom of EdinburghonPrince Frederick Louis, grandson of George I and future Prince of Wales. It merged in the Crown in 1760, when its holder acceded as George III.

Linley, chosen for the viscountcy, comes from the 1st Earl of Snowdon's maternal great-grandfather, the English cartoonist and illustrator Edward Linley Sambourne.^[3]

Nymans, chosen as territorial designation of the viscountcy, relates to an English garden near HandcrossinWest Sussex, where Anne Armstrong-Jones, née Messel, Countess of Rosse, mother of the 1st Earl of Snowdon, had grown up.^[3]

Life peerage[edit]

In November 1999, the 1st Earl of Snowdon received a life peerageasBaron Armstrong-Jones,^[4][5] under a device designed to allow first-generation hereditary peers to retain their seats in the House of Lords, after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999.

Earls of Snowdon (1961)[edit]

The heir apparent is the present holder's only son, Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (b. 1999). He is alone in the line of succession to the earldom.

Coats of arms[edit]

• 
  Arms of the 1st Earl of Snowdon, GCVO
• 
  Arms of the 2nd Earl of Snowdon^[6]
• 
  Arms of the 2nd Earl of Snowdon's heir apparent Charles, Viscount Linley

Notes[edit]

^ The 2nd Earl has the right to use the Coronet of a child of a Daughter of the Sovereign.

External links[edit]

• Media related to Earls of Snowdon at Wikimedia Commons
• Cracroft's Peerage page