 The family is related through marriage to the Churchills of Blenheim Palace, a line that included the Dukes of Marlborough and Winston Churchill.From the Althorp line came the Earls of Sunderland, the later Dukes of Marlborough, and the Earls Spencer.The family captured international attention when Lady Diana Frances Spencer married Prince Charles on 29 July 1981, and her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.