John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

“ The love of the two friends changed into hate, and no opportunity for humiliating the family of Marlborough was allowed to pass neglected. Sunderland and Godolphin were the first to fall (July-Aug. 1710) ; a few months later the duchess was dismissed from her offices; and, although Marlborough himself was permitted to continue in his position a short time longer, his fall was only delayed until the last day of 1711. Life in England had become so unpleasant that he went to the Continent in November 1712 and remained abroad until the death of Anne (Aug. 1, 1714) . ”

“ By the end of the year Brabant was again subject to the rule of the allies. The suffering in France at this time weighed so heavily upon the people that its proud king humbled himself to sue for peace. Each of the allies in turn did he supplicate, and Torcy his minister endeavoured by promises of large sums of money to obtain the support of Marlborough to his proposals. These attempts were in vain, and when the winter passed away a French army of one hundred and ten thousand, under the command of Villars, took the field. ”

“ During the last years of William’s reign Marlborough once more was placed in positions of responsibility. His daughters were married into the most prominent families of the land; Henrietta, the eldest, became the wife of Francis, the eldest son of Lord Godolphin; the second, the loveliest woman at the court, with her father’s tact and temper and her mother’s beauty, married Charles, Lord Spencer, the only surviving son of the earl of Sunderland. Higher honours came on the accession of Queen Anne in March 1702. ”

“ After a year of comparative failure for the allies, Louis XIV. was emboldened to enter upon an offensive movement against Austria; and Marlborough, smarting under the misadventures of 1703, was eager to meet him. A magnificent army was sent by the French king, under the command of Marshal Tallard, to join the forces of the elector of Bavaria and to march by the Danube so as to seize Vienna itself. Marlborough divined the intention of the expedition, and while making a feint of marching into Alsace led his troops into Bavaria. ”

“ The French commander made the mistake of supposing that the enemy’s attack would be directed against his position in the village, and he concentrated an excessive number of his troops at that point. The early part of the fight was in favour of the French. Three times were the troops led by Prince Eugène, which were attacking the Bavarians, the enemy’s left wing, driven back in confusion; Marlborough’s cavalry failed on their first attack in breaking the line of the enemy’s centre. But in the end the victory of the allies was conclusive. ”

“ Nearly thirty thousand of the French and Bavarians were killed and wounded, and eleven thousand of the French who had been driven down to the Danube were forced to surrender. Bavaria fell into the hands of the allies. Never was a victory more eagerly welcomed than this, and never was a conquering leader more rewarded than Marlborough. Poets and prose writers were employed to do him honour, and the lines of Addison comparing the English commander to the angel who passed over “pale Britannia” in the storm of 1703 have been famous for over two centuries. ”

“ Many men have received that honour for less. He died in July 1700.
42 Prince George of Denmark, Husband of Queen Anne (884) . . . . . Dahl.
In an oval, to the shoulders; in armour.—His death in this Palace has been mentioned on page 22.
43 John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough . . . . . Jan Wyck.
Three-quarters length, in armour; face turned three-quarters to the left. His left hand is on his hip, his right on a table by his side, on which is a plumed helmet. A battle scene is shown in the lower right background. On canvas, 3 ft. high, by 2 ft. 4 in. wide. ”

“ Austria, Holland, Savoy, and England were arrayed against France. And this war of the Spanish Succession was the longest, the bloodiest, and the most disastrous war in which Louis (p. 246) was ever engaged. It commenced the last year of the reign of William III., and lasted thirteen years.
The great hero of this war was doubtless the Duke of Marlborough. Duke of Marlborough, although Prince Eugene gained with him as imperishable glories as war can bestow. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, cannot be said to be one of those geniuses who have impressed their minds on nations and centuries ”

“ He is John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire—one of the greatest military geniuses who ever lived, the victor of one of the decisive battles of the world, the man who overthrew the vast fabric of power which Lewis the Fourteenth had erected, the general who never fought a battle that he did not win and never besieged a place that he did not take! ”

“ Henry Cavendish, the eminent chemist and philosopher, was grandson to the second duke (who married Rachel, daughter of William, Lord Russell) . The present duke was senior wrangler of his year; his eldest son is leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons.
Of the dukes of Marlborough, who are next on the list, it is unnecessary to say much. All the world knows the strange history of John Churchill, the noblest and the meanest of mankind. The great duke's only son died of the smallpox while yet a boy; but his honors were made perpetual in the female as well as the male line. ”

“ Lord Randolph's two sons, Winston Leonard and John Winston, did no accompany their parents. Lord Randolph's eldest son, Winston Leonard, who is nineteen years old, is the centre of much interest among the English nobility since he may be the Duke of Marlborough before long. The present Duke, his cousin, is twenty-two years old, and is unmarried and of a very frail constitution. It is said by physicians that he cannot live for many years. In the even of the Duke of Marlborough's death, Lord Randolph would receive the title, and his son after him. ”

“ There was young Crofts, the king's acknowledged son, Duke of Monmouth by grace of his mother's frailties. He was a living example of the doctrine of total depravity in what purported to be a man. There was John Churchill, a very decent fellow in a politic way, though in bad company. He afterward married my laconic cousin Sarah, whose shrewdness made him the first Duke of Marlborough, and last, I regret to chronicle, was George Hamilton, resting from his labors at self-reform. ”

“ Letters and Despatches of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, from 1702 to 1712. Edited by Sir George Murray, G.C.B., Master-General of the Ordnance, &c. 3 vols. London, 1845.
[2] "Marlborough," says Swift, "is as voracious as hell, and as ambitious as the devil. What he desires above every thing is to be made commander-in-chief for life, and it is to satisfy his ambition and his avarice that he has opposed so many intrigues to the efforts made for the restoration of peace." ”

“ Winston Churchill's family, and Marlborough's maternal uncle, Sir John Drake, was his godfather’ (Worseley, John, Duke of Marlborough, i. 2–6) . He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 13 July 1660, and graduated B.A. on 23 April 1664. ”

“ John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, the celebrated general, born 1650, created Earl 1689, Duke 1702, died 1722. This medal was struck in 1706, after the conquest of Brabant and of Spanish Flanders, and after the capture of Antwerp. It is placed out of chronological order, being selected for the portrait of Marlborough.
433. Prince Eugene of Savoy, 1704. Obv. Bust r., in armour and collar of Golden Fleece. EVGENIVS FRANC. DVX SAB. CÆS. EXER. GENER. COMM. Rev. Angel with flaming sword destroying the army of Sennacherib. GENII VIRTVTE BONI. II. REG. 19 ”

“ By his wife he had seven sons and four daughters, including John, duke of Marlborough [q. v.] , and Arabella Churchill [q. v.] . Churchill's extreme royalist sentiments led him to devote his learning and leisure to the composition of a kind of apotheosis of the kings of England, which he dedicated to Charles II, and published in 1675 under the title 'Divi Britannici; being a Remark upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle, from the year of the World 2855 until the year of Grace 1660,' with the arms of all the kings of England, 'which made it sell among novices (Wood) . ”

“ Marlborough (The duke of) , John Churchill. He was called by Marshal Turenne Le Bel Anglais (1650-1722) .
Marlow (Sir Charles) , the kind-hearted old friend of Squire Hardcastle.
Young Marlow, son of Sir Charles. “Among women of reputation and virtue he is the modestest man alive; but his acquaintances give him a very different character among women of another stamp” (act i. 1) . Having mistaken Hardcastle’s house for an inn, and Miss Hardcastle for the barmaid, he is quite at his ease, and makes love freely. ”

“ No light has been shed on the character of Marlborough clearer than that in which it is exposed by the story of his start in life. John Churchill came up to London to seek his fortune [79] with empty pockets, no influence, and a face of such beauty as few young men have ever been endowed with. He was an obscure youth of seventeen, with ambition already unbridled, when the eyes of my Lady Castlemaine first fell upon him. At the first exchange of glances desire was born in both of them. The courtezan saw in him a new emotion to be gratified ”

“ The great associations with the name of Churchill, the extensive patronage which the Duke and his Duchess possessed, the intermarriages of their beautiful and admired 179daughters into families of influence; and perhaps, not least of all, the habit into which society had grown of considering the rule of the Marlborough family as indestructible, had lessened the disgust which men evince towards female domination, and had reconciled the public mind to that of which all could complain, but of which none could anticipate the decline. ”

“ Colonel Churchill's sensational tour de force has aroused a natural interest in his personality. He is still a young man, being only just on the wrong side of forty. In choosing a military career he responded to hereditary impulse, for he is a direct descendant of that great military genius, the Duke of Marlborough. ”

“ These expressions had a deeper meaning than compliment; and Lord Peterborough sought also a closer connexion than friendship with the exalted house of Marlborough. The Lady Mary Churchill, the youngest daughter of the Duke and Duchess, and, at the time of her brother’s death, the only unmarried daughter, was one of the most distinguished of her family for beauty, as well as for the higher qualities of the mind and heart. ”

“ Churchill, Lord Randolph, an English Conservative politician, third son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, who, though a man of mark, and more than once in office, could never heart and soul join any party and settle down to steady statesmanship ”

“ The touchy pride of the king of Prussia in his new royal dignity, when he rose from being a simple Elector of Brandenburg to a throne, made him one of the most vexatious among the allies; but all difficulty with him ceased when Marlborough rose at a state banquet and glutted his vanity by handing him a napkin. Churchill's composure rested partly on a pride which could not stoop to bare the real self within to the eyes of meaner men. In the bitter moments before his fall he bade Godolphin burn some querulous letters which the persecution of his opponents had wrung from him ”

“ No sooner had he received intelligence of this, than Marlborough, on the 10th of August, sent the Duke of Wirtemburg with twenty-seven squadrons of horse to reinforce the prince; and early next morning detached General Churchill with twenty battalions across the Danube, to be in a situation to support him in case of need. He himself immediately after followed, and joined the Prince with his whole army on the 11th. Every thing now presaged decisive events. ”

“ The empire was slow to move; the court of Vienna was distracted with a war against the Turks; Spain was all but powerless; Holland and England were alone earnest in the struggle, and England could as yet give little aid in it. One English brigade indeed, formed from the regiments raised by James, joined the Dutch army on the Sambre, and distinguished itself under Churchill, who had been rewarded for his treason with the title of Earl of Marlborough, in a brisk skirmish with the enemy at Walcourt. But for the bulk of his forces William had as yet grave work to do at home. ”

“ His obnoxious favourite, Admiral George Churchill, to whom the conduct of the naval administration had been chiefly entrusted, was persuaded by his brother, the Duke of Marlborough, to offer his resignation. ”

“ Why, heart alive! if Marlborough but hears you have done such a thing as this, your new commission will be as good as signed by Queen Anne. He hath ever an eye for a quick brain, a ready hand. 'Tis thus that great men rise or, being risen, help to maintain their eminence. The workman who chooses good tools does ever the best of work."
"Therefore I need not fear?"
"Fear! Fear nothing; above all, fear not that you shall go unrewarded. Moreover, remember Jack Churchill has ever been a valiant cavalier of le beau sexe, un preux chevalier ”

“ In 1817, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the Dukedom of Marlborough, and in the same year he assumed by Royal Licence the surname and arms of Churchill in addition to his patronymic of Spencer. ”