CHURCHILL, John, duke of Marlborough, and prince of the holy Roman empire, a most renowned general and statesman, was born at Ashe in Devonshire in 1650. He was eldest son of Sir Winston Churchill who carried him to court while very young, and where he was particularly favoured by James duke of York, afterwards King James II. when only twelve years of age. In 1666, he was made an ensign of the guards during the first Dutch war; and afterwards improved himself greatly in the military art at Tangier. In 1672, Mr Churchill attended the duke of Monmouth, who commanded a body of auxiliaries in the French service, and was soon after made a captain in the duke's own regiment. At the siege of Nimeguen, which happened in that campaign, he distinguished himself so much that he was taken notice of by the celebrated Marshal Turenne, who bestowed on him the name of the handsome Englishman.—In 1673, he was at the siege of Maastricht, where he gained such applause, that the king of France made him a public acknowledgement of his service; and the duke of Monmouth, who had the direction of the attack, told King Charles II. that he owed his life to Mr Churchill's bravery. In 1681, he married Sarah, daughter and co-heiress (with her sister the countess of Tyrconnel) of Richard Jennings, Esq. of Sandrich, in Hertfordshire. The duke of York recommended him in a very particular manner to the king; who, in 1682, created him baron of Eyemouth in the county of Berwick, in Scotland, and made him colonel of the third troop of guards. A little after King James's accession, he was created Baron Churchill of Sandrich in the county of Hertford, and made brigadier-general of his majesty's army in the west; where, when the duke of Monmouth came to surprise the king's army while the earl of Feverham and the majority of the officers were in their beds, he kept the enemy in play, till the king's forces had formed themselves, and thereby saved the whole army. When James showed an intention of establishing the Catholic religion in Britain, Lord Churchill, notwithstanding the great obligations he owed him, thought it his duty to abandon the royal cause; but even then did not leave him
without acquainting him by letter with the reason of Churchill's so doing. Lord Churchill was graciously received by the prince of Orange; and was by him employed first to re-assemble the troop of guards at London, and afterwards to reduce some lately raised regiments, and to new-model the army; for which purpose he was invested with the rank and title of lieutenant general. In 1689, he was sworn one of the privy council, and one of the gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber; and on the 9th of April following, was raised to the dignity of earl of Marlborough in the county of Wilts. He assisted at the coronation of their majesties; and was soon after made commander in chief of the English forces sent over to Holland; and here he first laid the foundation of that fame which was afterwards spread over all Europe. In 1690, he was made general of the forces sent to Ireland; where he made the strong garrisons of Cork and Kinsale prisoners of war. The year following, King William showed the good opinion he had of his conduct, by sending him to Flanders to put all things in readiness, and to draw the army together before his arrival. In 1692, he was dismissed from all his employments; and, not long after, was with some other peers committed to the Tower on an accusation of high treason; which, however, was afterwards found to be a false and malicious report, the authors of which were punished. Marlborough was soon restored to favour, and in 1698 was appointed governor to the earl of Gloucester; with this extraordinary compliment from King William, "My lord, make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all I wish to see him." The same day he was again sworn one of the privy council; and in July following was declared one of the lords justices of England, for the administration of the government, in which great trust he was three times successively in the king's absence. In 1701 he was appointed general of the foot, commander in chief of the English forces, and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the Hague. Upon the accession of Queen Anne to the throne, he was elected into the order of the Garter, declared captain general of all her majesty's forces, and sent ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Holland. After several conferences about a war, he put himself at the head of the army, where all the other generals had orders to obey him. His exploits in the field have been taken notice of under the article BRITAIN, No 344—370: we shall therefore only take notice in this place of the rewards and honours conferred upon him for these exploits. After his first campaign he was created marquis of Blandford and duke of Marlborough, with a pension of 5000l. out of the post office, to devolve, for ever upon those enjoying the title of duke of Marlborough. In 1703, he met Charles III. late emperor, going to Spain, who presented him with a sword set with diamonds. In 1704, having forced the enemy's lines at Schellenberg, he received a letter of thanks from the emperor Leopold, written with his own hand; an honour seldom done to any but sovereign princes. After the battle of Blenheim, he received congratulatory letters from most of the potentates in Europe, particularly from the states-general, and from the emperor, who desired him to accept of the dignity of a prince of the empire, which with the queen's leave was conferred upon him
by the title of Prince of Mildenheim in the province of Swabia. After the campaign was ended, he visited the court of Prussia, where he laid such schemes as suspended the disputes with the Dutch about King William's estate; which wise conduct caused the whole confederacy to acknowledge that he had done the greatest service possible to the common cause. Upon his return to England, the queen, to perpetuate his memory, granted the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wotton to him and his heirs for ever. In 1705 he made a tour to Vienna, upon the invitation of the emperor Joseph; who highly caressed him, and made him a grant of the lordship of Mildenheim. After the campaign of 1708, the speaker of the house of commons was sent to Brussels on purpose to compliment him; and on his return to England he was again complimented in the house of lords by Lord Chancellor Cowper. All his services, however, and all the honours conferred upon him, were not sufficient to preserve him from being disgraced. After the change of the ministry in 1710, his interest daily declined; and in 1712, on the first day of the new year, he was removed from all his places. Finding all arts used to render him obnoxious in his native country, he visited his principality of Mildenheim, and several towns in Germany; after which he returned to England, and arrived there on the day of the queen's death. After being welcomed by the nobility and foreign ministers, he attended on King George I. in his public entry through London, who appointed him captain-general, colonel of the first regiment of foot guards, one of the commissioners for the government of Chelsea hospital, and master general of the ordnance. Some years before his death, he retired from public business. He died at Windsor-lodge in 1722, aged 73; leaving behind him a very numerous posterity, allied to the noblest and greatest families in these kingdoms. Upon his demise all parties united in doing honour, or rather justice, to his merit, and his corpse was interred the 9th of August following, with all the solemnity due to a person who had deserved so highly of his country, in Westminster-abbey. The noble pile near Woodstock, which bears the name of Blenheim-house, may be justly styled his monument: but without pretending to the gift of prophecy, one may venture to foretel, that his glory will long survive that structure; and that so long as our histories remain, or indeed the histories of Europe, his memory will live and be the boast of Britain, which by his labours was raised to be the first of nations, as during the age in which he lived he was deservedly esteemed the first of men. If he had foibles, as these are inseparable from human nature, they were so hidden by the glare of his virtues as to be scarcely perceived, or were willingly forgotten. A certain parasite, who thought to please Lord Bolingbroke by ridiculing the avarice of the duke, was stopt short by his lordship; who said, "He was so very great a man, that I forgot he had that vice."
Out of a variety of anecdotes and testimonies concerning this illustrious personage, collected in the new edition of the Biographia Britannica, the following selection may serve to illustrate more particularly his disposition and manners.
One of the first things which he did, when very
young, was to purchase a box to put his money in; an indication this of the economical, not to say avaricious, temper that accompanied him through life. Dr Joseph Warton relates, that, on the evening of an important battle, the duke was heard to chide his servant for having been so extravagant as to light four candles in his tent when Prince Eugene came to confer with him. Mr Tyers, on the other hand, mentioned a circumstance, which, if well founded, redounds to his grace's generosity; though in a different respect it is much to his discredit: It is, that during the rebellion in 1715, he sent 10,000l. to the earl of Mar. We consider the story only as a traditional report, which has not in itself any great degree of probability; and therefore we are by no means convinced of its truth. The late Mr Richardson junior, the painter, hath recorded a pleasing instance of the duke's calmness of disposition; for which, indeed, he was always remarkable. "The duke of Marlborough (says the writer), riding out once with Commissary Marriot, near the commissary's house in the country, it began to rain, and the duke called for his cloak; Marriot having his put on by his servant immediately. The duke's servant not bringing the cloak, he called for it again; but the man was still puzzling about the straps and buckles. At last, it raining now very hard, the duke called again, and asked him, "what he was about that he did not bring his cloak?" "You must stay (grumbles the fellow), if it rains cats and dogs, till I can get at it." The duke only turned to Marriot and said, "I would not be of that fellow's temper." The duke of Marlborough (adds Mr Richardson) did by nature and constitution, what Seneca judged by philosophy ought to be done. Quid est quare ego servi mei hilarius responsum, et contumaciorum vultum, flagellis et compedibus expiem?
Dr Swift, in one of his letters to Stella, relates the following particulars concerning the duke of Marlborough. "I was early this morning with Secretary St John, and gave him a memorial to get the queen's letter for the first-fruits, who has promised to do it in a very few days. He told me 'he had been with the duke of Marlborough, who was lamenting his former wrong steps in joining with the Whigs, and said he was worn out with age, fatigue, and misfortunes.' I swear it pitied me; and I really think they will not do well in too much mortifying that man, although indeed it is his own fault. He is covetous as hell, and ambitious as the prince of it: he would fain have been general for life, and has broken all endeavours for peace, to keep his greatness and get money. He told the queen 'he was neither covetous nor ambitious.' She said, 'if she could conveniently have turned about, she would have laughed, and could hardly forbear it in his face.' He fell in with all the abominable measures of the late ministry, because they gratified him for their own designs. Yet he has been a successful general, and I hope he will continue his command."
Various characters have been drawn of the duke of Marlborough; most of which we shall omit, as either already sufficiently known, or as not meriting particular notice. That which is given of him by Dr Swift, in his "History of the four last years of the queen," has all the malignity and meanness of a party pamphlet. It is even so foolish as to insinuate, that the duke's
Churchill. duke's military accomplishments were problematical, and that he was destitute of personal courage. Mr Macpherson's character of his grace is very elaborately composed, and displays no small degree of ability and penetration; though it is not, perhaps, entirely free from prejudice. The historian considers it as a fact, that Lord Churchill, at the time of the revolution, had a design of placing his unfortunate master King James II. a prisoner in the hands of his rival the prince of Orange. But this story must be regarded as wholly unworthy of credit. It is founded upon suggestions and informations so groundless and even ridiculous, that it cannot deserve a formal refutation. On the other hand, Mr Macpherson has done justice to the duke of Marlborough's prosecution of the war in Flanders, and hath shown that he conducted it upon the principles of sound wisdom and good policy.
There are two testimonies to the honour of the duke's memory, by two celebrated noble writers, which cannot be passed over. One is by Lord Bolingbroke, in his letters on the Study and Use of History. Speaking of the consternation raised among the allies of the grand confederacy by the death of King William, and of the joy which that event gave to the French, his lordship observes, that "a short time showed how vain the fears of some and the hopes of others were. By his death, the duke of Marlborough was raised to the head of the army, and indeed of the confederacy: where he, a new, a private man, a subject, acquired, by merit and by management, a more deciding influence than high birth, confirmed authority, and even the crown of Great Britain, had given to King William. Not only all the parts of that vast machine, the grand alliance, were kept more compact and entire, but a more rapid and vigorous motion was given to the whole: and instead of languishing out disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of action. All those wherein he appeared, and many of those wherein he was not then an actor, but abettor however of their action, were crowned with the most triumphant success. I take, with pleasure, this opportunity of doing justice to that great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired; and whose memory, as the greatest general, and as the greatest minister, that our country, or perhaps any other, has produced, I honour."
The other testimony to the duke's accomplishments is by the earl of Chesterfield, in his Letters to his Son. "Of all the men (says his lordship) that ever I knew in my life (and I knew him extremely well), the late duke of Marlborough possessed the graces in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them: and indeed he got the most by them; for I will venture (contrary to the custom of profound historians, who always assign deep causes for great events) to ascribe the better half of the duke of Marlborough's greatness and riches to those graces. He was eminently illiterate; wrote bad English, and spelled it still worse. He had no share of what is commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing shining in his genius. He had had, most undoubtedly, an excellent good plain understanding, with sound judgment. But these alone would probably have raised him but something higher than they found him, which was page to King James II.'s
queen. There the graces protected and promoted Churchill: for while he was an ensign of the guards, the duchess of Cleveland, then favourite mistress to King Charles II. struck by those very graces, gave him 5000l.; with which he immediately brought an annuity for his life of 500l. of my grandfather Halifax; which was the foundation of his subsequent fortune. His figure was beautiful; but his manner was irresistible by either man or woman. It was by this engaging graceful manner that he was enabled, during all his wars, to connect the various and jarring powers of the grand alliance, and to carry them on to the main object of the war, notwithstanding their private and separate views, jealousies, and wrongheadedness. Whatever court he went to (and he was often obliged to go himself to some testy and refractory ones,) he as constantly prevailed, and brought them into his measures. The pensionary Heinsius, a venerable old minister, grown gray in business, and who had governed the republic of the United Provinces for more than 40 years, was absolutely governed by the duke of Marlborough, as that republic feels to this day. He was always cool; and nobody ever observed the least variation in his countenance: he could refuse more gracefully than other people could grant; and those who went away from him the most dissatisfied as to the substance of their business, were yet personally charmed with him, and in some degree comforted by his manner. With all his gentleness and gracefulness, no man living was more conscious of his situation, nor maintained his dignity better."
A perusal of the above passage will convince us of the frivolous turn of the earl of Chesterfield's mind. His lordship, in his zeal to exalt the duke of Marlborough's external accomplishments, either forgets or depreciates the far greater talents of which he was possessed. There is an observation upon the subject in the British Biography, with which we entirely concur. "That the duke of Marlborough (says the writer) was eminently distinguished for the gracefulness of his manners, cannot be questioned; but the earl of Chesterfield appears to have attributed too much to their influence, when he ascribes—the better half of the duke of Marlborough's greatness and riches to those graces. That the uncommon gracefulness of his manners facilitated his advancement, and contributed to the success of his negotiations, may readily be admitted; but surely it must have been to much higher qualities that he owed the esteem of King William and of Prince Eugene, his reputation throughout all Europe, and his many victories and conquests. It was not by a polite exterior that he obtained his laurels at Schellenberg, at Oudenarde, at Ramillies, and at Blenheim."
How much the duke of Marlborough has been celebrated by our poets, is well known by Addison's "Campaign;" and by Philips's "Bleinheim." Mr Addison, in his Rosamond, has properly assumed another and voluntary occasion of paying a fine compliment to his grace's military exploits, and the glory by which they would be followed. Upon the duke's removal from his places, an ode was inscribed to him by Mr Sommerville, animated with all the zeal of whiggish enthusiasm, and containing some passages that are truly poetical. Another ode, not much inferior in spirit,
Churchill was addressed to his grace, on occasion of his embark-
ing for Ostend in the year 1712.
The duke of Marlborough's Scots title of Baron Eyemouth, being to heirs male, died with himself; but his English title going to his daughters and their heirs-male, went into the Spencer family, who retain their own surname of Spencer.