Winston S. Churchill - Marlborough: His Life and Times, 1933

J OHN CHURCHILL, FIRST DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH
John Closterman (attributed to), ca. 16851690 (detail),
courtesy National Portrait Gallery, London.

Winston S. Churchill

Copyright

Marlborough
His Life and Times, Volume One
First published 193338. Estate of Winston S. Churchill
Cover art to the electronic edition copyright 2014 by RosettaBooks, LLC.

Image of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, home of the Dukes of Marlborough and birthplace of Winston Churchill, reproduced by permission of Curtis Brown, London, on behalf of The Broadwater Collection, an archive of photographs owned by the Churchill family and held at the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Cover design by Alexia Garaventa.

Electronic edition published 2014 by RosettaBooks, LLC, New York.
ISBN e-Pub edition: 9780795329883

To
The Grenadier Guards
The 1st Guards,
In which John Churchill,
afterwards Duke of Marlborough,
received his first commission on September 14, 1667,
of which he was Colonel from the year 1704 to 1711
and from 1714 till his death, and which served under him at the Battle of
the Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde,
and Malplaquet,
and in all the principal sieges and other
Great Operations
During ten victorious campaigns,
this work is dedicated by the author
in memory of
the courtesies and kindness
shown to him by the regiment in
The Great War

B.M. = British Museum Library.

C. = Chancery Records in the London Record Office.

C.S.P. = Calendar ofStatePapers.

C.S.P. (Dom.) = Calendar ofStatePapers, Domestic Series.

D.N.B. = Dictionary ofNationalBiography.

H.M.C. = Report of the RoyalHistoricalManuscriptsCommission.

P.R.O.= The Public Record Office, London.

S.P. = State Papers.

For further details as to footnote references see the .

In quoting from old documents and letters the original text has been preserved wherever it is significant. Letters of Marlborough and Sarah which enter directly into the narrative have been modernized in spelling, grammar, and punctuation so far as is convenient to the reader. But the archaic style and setting has been preserved, and occasionally words are left in characteristic spelling.

Documents never before made public are distinguished with an asterisk (*). In the case of unpublished letters to and from Marlborough preserved in the Blenheim collection no further reference is given.

All italics are the Authors, unless the contrary is stated.

In the diagrams, except where otherwise stated, fortresses held by the allies are shown as black stars and those occupied by the French as white stars.

Until 1752 dates in England and on the Continent differed owing to our delay in adopting the Reformed Calendar of Gregory XIII. The dates which prevailed in England were known as Old Style, those abroad as New Style. In the seventeenth century the difference was ten days, in the eighteenth century eleven days. For example, January 1, 1601 (O.S.), was January 11, 1601 (N.S.), and January 1, 1701 (O.S.), was January 12, 1701 (N.S.).

The method I have used is to give all dates of events that occurred in England and documents written in England in the Old Style, and of events that occurred abroad in New Style. In sea battles and a few other convenient cases the dates are given in both styles.

It was also customary at this timeat any rate, in English official documentsto date the year as beginning on Lady Day, March 25. What we should call January 1, 1700, was then called January 1, 1699, and so on for all days up to March 25, when 1700 began. This has been a fertile source of confusion. In this book all dates between January 1 and March 25 have been made to conform to the modern practice.

J OHN , D UKE OF M ARLBOROUGH

There are few successful commanders, says Creasy, on whom Fame has shone so unwillingly as upon John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. I believe this is true; and it is an interesting historical study to examine the causes which have made so great a contrast between the glory and importance of his deeds and the small regard of his countrymen for his memory. He commanded the armies of Europe against France for ten campaigns. He fought four great battles and many important actions. It is the common boast of his champions that he never fought a battle that he did not win, nor besieged a fortress he did not take. Amid all the chances and baffling accidents of war he produced victory with almost mechanical certainty. Even when fighting in fetters and hobbles, swayed and oppressed by influences which were wholly outside the military situation, he was able to produce the same result, varying only in degree. Nothing like this can be seen in military annals. His smaller campaigns were equally crowned by fortune. He never rode off any field except as a victor. He quitted war invincible: and no sooner was his guiding hand withdrawn than disaster overtook the armies he had led. Successive generations have not ceased to name him with Hannibal and Csar.

Until the advent of Napoleon no commander wielded such widespread power in Europe. Upon his person centred the union of nearly twenty confederate states. He held the Grand Alliance together no less by his diplomacy than by his victories. He rode into action with the combinations of three-quarters of Europe in his hand. His comprehension of the war extended to all theatres, and his authority alone secured design and concerted action. He animated the war at sea no less than on land, and established till the present time the British naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. His eye ranged far across the oceans, and the foundations of British dominion in the New World and in Asia were laid or strengthened as the result of his Continental policy. He was for six years not only the Commander-in-Chief of the Allies, but, though a subject, virtually master of England. He was the head of the most glorious Administration in her history when he led Europe, saved the Austrian Empire, and broke irretrievably the exorbitant power of France. The union with Scotland was but a feature of a period in which our country made its greatest advances in world rank and fame.