John, Duke of Marlborough, was born at Ashe in Devonshire, June 24, 1650. He was second son of Sir Winston Churchill, a staunch royalist, who for his services during the civil war was rewarded with considerable preferment at court. Thither young Churchill followed his father before he had acquired even a common education; but this deficiency proved no barrier in the way of an intimacy which soon sprang up between him and the Duke of York, afterwards James II. In 1666 he was made an ensign of the guards during the first Dutch war; and afterwards served at Tangier in the war against the Moors. In 1672 Churchill joined the Duke of Monmouth, who commanded a body of auxiliaries in the French service, and soon afterwards he was made captain in the duke's own regiment. At the siege of Nimuegen, which happened during that campaign, he distinguished himself so much that he gained the admiration of Marshal Turenne, who bestowed on him the name of "the handsome Englishman." In 1673 he was present at the siege of Maestricht, and afterwards received a public acknowledgment from the king of France for his services on that occasion. The Duke of Monmouth too, who had the direction of the attack, acknowledged to Charles II. that he owed his life to Churchill's bravery. In 1681 he married Sarah, daughter of Richard Jennings, Churchill, Esq. of Sandrich, Hertfordshire, a lady who like himself had spent her early life at court, and whose genius and temper exercised a very remarkable influence on his character and fortunes. Soon after this, through the patronage of the Duke of York, he obtained the baronetcy of Eyemouth, and a colonelcy in the third troop of guards. On the accession of King James 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 attempted to surprise the king's army while the Earl of Feversham and the greater part of the officers were in bed, he kept the enemy in play till the king's forces had time to form, and thereby saved the whole army. At the time of the revolution he hesitated for a while between the two contending parties, offering his services to the one, while he accepted command under the other; but at length he joined the Prince of Orange. He was graciously received in the prince's camp; and for his services in augmenting and remodelling the army was invested with the rank and title of lieutenant-general. In 1689 he was sworn a member of the privy-council, and one of the gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber; and immediately after he 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 afterwards appointed commander-in-chief of the English forces sent over to Holland, where he first laid the foundation of that fame which was afterwards spread over all Europe. In 1690 he was appointed general of the forces sent to Ireland, and captured the garrisons of Cork and Kinsale. In the following year he was sent by King William to Flanders on a preparatory expedition, for the purpose of organizing the army before the arrival of the king. In 1692 he was dismissed from all his employments, and not long afterwards committed to the Tower, on an accusation of high treason. This aspersion on his character seems to have been without foundation. Marlborough was soon restored to favour; and, in 1698, appointed governor to the Earl of Gloucester; upon which occasion King William paid him this extraordinary compliment:—"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 of the privy-council; and in July following he was declared one of the lords justices of England, for the administration of the government, an office with which he was three times successively invested in the king's absence. In 1701 he was appointed general of infantry, 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 as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Holland. His warlike exploits, and the vicissitudes of his political career have been sufficiently detailed under Britain; we shall therefore only mention here the rewards and honours conferred upon him for these brilliant achievements. After his first campaign he was created Marquis of Blandford and Duke of Marlborough, with a pension of £5000 out of the post-office, to devolve for ever upon those enjoying the title of Duke of Marlborough. In 1703 he met Charles III., afterwards emperor, proceeding to Spain, by whom he was presented with a sword set with diamonds. In 1704, having forced the enemy's lines at Schellenberg, he was honoured with a letter of thanks from the emperor Leopold, written with his own hand. 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. With permission of his sovereign, accordingly, he was created Prince of Mildenheim, in the province of Swabia. When the campaign was ended, he visited the court of Prussia, where he succeeded in suspending the disputes with the Dutch about King William's estate; and by his address on the occasion gained the acknowledgment from the whole confederacy that the duke 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 received him in the most gracious manner, 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 received a second compliment in the House of Lords. After the change of the ministry in 1710, his interest daily declined; and in the beginning of 1712 he was removed from all his offices. Finding his disgrace sealed (if it was not actually procured) by the estrangement which then existed between the Duchess of Marlborough and the queen, he spent a considerable part of his time abroad—visiting his principality of Mildenheim, and several towns in Germany—and arrived in England only on the day of the queen's death. Receiving a cordial welcome from the nobility and foreign ministers, he attended George I. in his public entry into London; and was appointed 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. These dignities he retained till his death, which took place at Windsor Lodge, June 16, 1722; and though 73 years old and weakened by two previous paralytic strokes, he retained his mental faculties in full vigour to the last. Upon his demise, all parties united in doing honour to his merit; and his corpse was interred, on the 9th of August following, in Westminster Abbey.

One of the most generous testimonies to the abilities and greatness of Marlborough is from the pen of Bolingbroke, who, though one of the keenest of his political opponents, is known to have said to a parasite who ridiculed the avarice of Marlborough—"He was so very great a man, that I had forgotten he had that vice." Speaking in his Letters on History of the consternation raised among the allies by the death of King William, and of the joy which that event gave to the French, Bolingbroke 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."

So far as his military ability is concerned, posterity has not hesitated to accept the verdict. Without inventing for himself a new system of strategy, or at all improving the military science of the day, he was never defeated in a battle, and never unsuccessful in a siege. He was the animating spirit of the Grand Alliance; and by his personal address at the foreign courts, as well as his skill in the field, he proved the bulwark of European liberties. His conduct at the era of the revolution, however, has been regarded as a Churchill, stigma to his character; and to this has been added the charge of deliberate treason in privately communicating to the French intelligence of a secret expedition against Brest. In the words of Mr Macaulay—"His former treason, thoroughly furnished with all that makes infamy exquisite, placed him under the disadvantage which attends every artist from the time that he produces a masterpiece. Yet his second great stroke may excite wonder, even in those who appreciate all the merit of the first. Lest his admirers should be able to say that, at the time of the revolution, he had betrayed his king for any other than selfish motives, he proceeded to betray his country. He sent intelligence to the French court of a secret expedition intended to attack Brest. The consequence was, that the expedition failed, and that 800 British soldiers lost their lives by the abandoned villany of a British general. Yet this man has been canonized by so many eminent writers, that, to speak of him as he deserves, scarcely seems decent."

The following anecdotes may be noticed as somewhat characteristic:—One of the first things which he did, when very young, was to purchase a box to put his money in; an indication of the economical, not to say avaricious, temper which 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. Richardson the painter has recorded a pleasing instance of the duke's equanimity, 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 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, as it now rained very hard, the duke called again, and asked him 'what was he about that he did not bring his cloak?' 'You must stay,' grumbled 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;' reminding us of the saying of Seneca, *Quid est quare ego servi mei hilarius responsum, et contumaciem vulturn, flagellis et comedibus expiri?*

The Memoirs and Correspondence of the Duke of Marlborough have been published by Archdeacon Coxe, in 3 vols. 4to.

Churchill, Charles (1731-1764), a celebrated satirist, was born at Westminster, where his father was curate and lecturer of St John's. He was educated at Westminster school; but made so little progress in his studies that when he went to Oxford he was rejected on account of his deficiency in the classics,—a circumstance which probably explains the frequent invectives which we find in his works against that university. On his return he again applied to his studies in Westminster school; and after studying theology for some time in retirement at Sunderland, he was ordained priest by Sherlock, bishop of London, and obtained a curacy at Cadbury in Somersetshire. It is said that, while in this situation, he endeavoured to augment his income by keeping a cider-cellar, and thus laid the foundation of his dissoluteness in after life; but this story seems to be without foundation, and is denied by the editor of his works. From Cadbury he removed to Wales; and thence, on the death of his father, to Westminster, where he was not unfavourably known for his talents and deportment. In spite, however, of his efforts to improve his income by teaching in a boarding-school, his debts soon outstripped his means, and he was only saved from incarceration by the interposition of Dr Lloyd, a master in Westminster school. His intimacy at this time with Robert Lloyd, a dissolute poetaster, the son of his benefactor, exerted an unhappy influence on his character. The first of Churchill's poems for which he could find a publisher was the Rosciad, a rude satire on the theatrical notabilities of the time; but it was not till a second edition was called for that he ventured to affix his name to the work. His next performance was his Apology to the Critical Reviewers, which contains a vigorous reply to the attacks made on his former production. While his writings were thus furnishing general amusement, his private life was viewed with unmitigated disgust. He abandoned his wife, resigned his clerical dignities, and openly devoted himself to a life of pleasure. To palliate his convivial excesses, he wrote a poem called Night, in which he justified his conduct by pleading that he never disguised it. His next poem, entitled the Ghast, is aimed at Dr Johnson, who had expressed an unfavourable opinion of Churchill's previous works, and is satirized under the name of Pomposo. A political squib, entitled Prophecy of Famine, was more successful than either of these works. It was written in the spirit of the North Briton, and principally to gratify Mr Wilkes, who anguished all of its success on the ground that it was at once personal, poetical, and political. His succeeding pieces were carelessly written, and far less successful. Gotham, Independence, The Times, &c., were written rather from a desire to profit by his fame than to advance it. Churchill died of a miliary fever at Boulogne, whither he had gone on a visit to his friend Wilkes. (See Genuine Memoirs of Mr Churchill, 12mo, 1765.) His collected poems were published in 2 vols. 8vo, 1779.