Earl Snowden’s titles explained
Following his wedding, Armstrong-Jones was granted an earldom and introduced to the House of Lords as the Earl of Snowdon on February 28, 1962.
The awarding of the earldom was in line with the practice of granting titles upon marriage into the Royal Family.
Snowdon was appointed Constable of Caernarfon Castle in 1963; as part of this role, he assisted in organising the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969.
He was better known as Lord Snowden.
He made his maiden speech in the House of Lords in April 1972 on the problems that disabled people suffered in everyday life.
One of his last contributions to the Lords was in response to the Queen’s Speech of 1992.
On November 16, 1999 Lord Snowdon was created Baron Armstrong-Jones, of Nymans in the County of West Sussex.
This was a life peerage given to him so that he could keep his seat in the House of Lords after the hereditary peers had been excluded.
An offer of a life peerage was made to all hereditary peers of the first creation (those for whom a peerage was originally created, as opposed to those who inherited a peerage from an ancestor) at that time.
