Earl of Snowdon is a title in the

Peerage of the United Kingdom The Peerage of the United Kingdom is one of the five Peerages in the United Kingdom. It comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801, when it replaced the ...

. It was created in 1961, together with the

subsidiary title A subsidiary title is a title of authority or title of honour that is held by a royal or noble person but which is not regularly used to identify that person, due to the concurrent holding of a greater title. United Kingdom An example in the Unit ...

of Viscount Linley, of Nymans in the

County of Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English C ...

, by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

for her then brother-in-law,

Antony Armstrong-Jones Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017), was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue'', '' Vanity Fa ...

, who married

Princess Margaret Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

in 1960.

Titles

Choice of names

Snowdon Snowdon () or (), is the highest mountain in Wales, at an elevation of above sea level, and the highest point in the British Isles outside the Scottish Highlands. It is located in Snowdonia National Park (') in Gwynedd (historic ...

'', 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 Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

Prince Frederick Louis Frederick, Prince of Wales, (Frederick Louis, ; 31 January 170731 March 1751), was the eldest son and heir apparent of King George II of Great Britain. He grew estranged from his parents, King George and Queen Caroline. Frederick was the fath ...

, 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. '' Nymans'', chosen as territorial designation of the viscountcy, relates to an English garden near

Handcross Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District, Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road south of Crawley. At the 2011 Census the population fell within the civil parish of Slaugham. Nymans Garden, of parklands r ...

in West Sussex, where Anne Armstrong-Jones, ''née'' Messel, Countess of Rosse, mother of the 1st Earl of Snowdon, had grown up.

Life peerage

In November 1999, the 1st Earl of Snowdon received a life peerage as Baron Armstrong-Jones, 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)

* ''

Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017), was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue'', '' Vanity Fa ...

(1930–2017)'' ** David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon (born 1961) ***(1) Charles Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley (b. 1999) 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

File:Coat of Arms of Antony, Earl of Snowdon.svg, Arms of the 1st Earl of Snowdon, GCVO File:Coat of arms of Antony Armstrong-Jones as 1st Earl of Snowdon.png, Arms of the 2nd Earl of Snowdon File:Arms Armstrong-Jones with cadency.png, Arms of the 2nd Earl of Snowdon's heir apparent Charles, Viscount Linley

Notes

External links

*
Cracroft's Peerage page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Snowdon Earls of Snowdon Earldoms in the Peerage of the United Kingdom 1961 establishments in the United Kingdom Noble titles created in 1961