John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

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John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough : biography

26 May 1650 – 27 June 1722

The Duke, ‘much thinner and greatly altered’,Churchill, Winston S., Marlborough: His Life and Times: Volume 2, University of Chicago Press, 2002 edition p.785. returned to England in November. His relationship with Anne had suffered further setbacks in recent months (she had refused to grant him his requested appointment of Captain-General for life, and had interfered in military appointments).Against Marlborough’s wishes, and prompted by Harley, the Queen appointed Lord Rivers for the post of Constable of the Tower, and awarded the colonelcy of the Oxford Dragoons to Jack Hill, brother of Abigail Masham. The damage done to Marlborough’s general standing was substantial because it was so visible. For now, though, the central issue was the Duchess whose growing resentment of Harley and Abigail had finally persuaded the Queen to be rid of her. Marlborough visited Anne on 17 January 1711 (O.S.) in a last attempt to save his wife, but she was not to be swayed, and demanded Sarah give up her Gold Key (the symbol of her office) within two days, warning, "I will talk of no other business till I have the key."Hibbert: The Marlboroughs, 268. Abigail Masham and the Duchess of Somerset divided between them Sarah’s places at court, and in bitterness she retired to her newly built mansion of Marlborough House.

Notwithstanding all this turmoil – and his declining health – Marlborough returned to The Hague in late February to prepare for what was to be his last campaign, and one of his greatest. Once again Marlborough and Villars formed against each other in line of battle, this time along the Avesnes-le-Comte–Arras sector of the lines of Non Plus Ultra (see map). By an exercise of brilliant psychological deception,Barnett: Marlborough, 259 and a secretive night march covering nearly 40 miles in 18 hours, the Allies penetrated the allegedly impregnable lines without losing a single man; Marlborough was now in position to besiege the fortress of Bouchain.Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714, 343 Villars, deceived and outmanoeuvred, was helpless to intervene, compelling the fortress’s unconditional surrender on 12 September. Chandler writes – "The pure military artistry with which he repeatedly deceived Villars during the first part of the campaign has few equals in the annals of military history … the subsequent siege of Bouchain with all its technical complexities, was an equally fine demonstration of martial superiority."Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 299

For Marlborough, though, time had run out. His strategic gains in 1711 made it virtually certain that the Allies would march on Paris the following year, but Harley had no intention of letting the war progress that far and risk jeopardising the favourable terms secured from the secret Anglo-French talks (based on the idea that Philip V would remain on the Spanish throne) that had proceeded throughout the year.Gregg: Queen Anne, 339 Marlborough had long had doubts about the Whig policy of ‘No Peace without Spain’, but he was reluctant to abandon his allies (including the Elector of Hanover, Anne’s heir presumptive), and sided with the Whigs in opposing the peace preliminaries.Holmes: Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genius, 459 Personal entreaties from the Queen (who had long tired of the war), failed to persuade the Duke. The Elector made it clear that he too was against the proposals, and publicly sided with the Whigs. Nevertheless, Anne remained resolute, and on 7 December 1711 (O.S.) she was able to announce that – "notwithstanding those who delight in the arts of war" – a sneer towards Marlborough – "both time and place are appointed for opening the treaty of a general peace."Gregg: Queen Anne, 347

Dismissal

To prevent the serious renewal of warfare in the spring, it was considered essential to replace Marlborough with a general more in touch with the Queen’s ministers and less in touch with their allies. To do this, Harley (newly created Earl of Oxford) and St John first needed to bring charges of corruption against the Duke, completing the anti-Whig, anti-war picture that Jonathan Swift was already presenting to a credulous public through his pamphleteering, notably in his Conduct of the Allies (1711).Trevelyan: England Under Queen Anne, III, 198 The means to achieve Marlborough’s fall had already been put in train when the Ministry had set up a Parliamentary ‘Commission for the taking, examining and stating the public accounts of the Kingdom’, to report on alleged irregularities during the war.