The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH

John Churchill (First Duke of Marlborough) was an English soldier. He was born in 1650 at Ashe and died in 1722. He served under Turenne in 1672 and distinguished himself at Nimeguen and Maestricht. In 1678 he married Sarah Jennings, a lady of the bedchamber of the Princess Anne. John Churchill showed great skill and resource in serving the royal army at Sedgemoor in 1685. In 1688 he went over to the Prince of Orange, and was made Earl of Marlborough by William III.

In the war in Ireland, from 1689 to 1691, his capture of the two ports of Cork and Kinsale severed the communications of France. He made his mark also in the war in the Low Countries. But he was disliked by William and his Dutch favourites. This and a strong feeling of sympathy with his old master caused Marlborough to enter into plots with King James at Saint-Germain. Following the affair of Brest he was arrested, kept in the Tower in 1692 and was for a time disgraced. But when a rupture with France appeared impending, the king took him to Holland to negotiate for the Grand Alliance.

After the death of William in 1702, he was made, largely through the influence of his wife with the new queen Anne, captain-general of the British army. John Churchill also commanded the forces of the Dutch republic. The career of John Churchill in the field was one of peculiar splendour. In 1702 to 1703 he seized the line of the Meuse. In the following year he arranged with Eugene the operations that saved the empire. After a march of extraordinary skill he struck down the veteran French and Bavarian armies, under Tallard and Marsion, on the field of Blenheim in 1704, piercing the enemy's centre by finely designed attacks. He had Villars, an adversary worthy of him, in his front in 1705; and he fell back in retreat before the marshal in Lorraine, having been left in the lurch by a colleague, Louis of Baden. Then he turned the celebrated lines constructed by the French to cover the east of Belgium, and in 1706 won the great battle of Ramillies.

John Churchill and Eugene triumphed again at Oudenarde, on the Scheldt, another battle won by a single stroke of tactics; and having captured the great fortress of Lille, they made preparations for the invasion of France. Villars, sent to defend his country, was just defeated on the terrible day of Malplaquet in 1709, for the allies only won a Pyrrhic victory. their losses, especially those of the Dutch, were enormous; the league against France was severely shaken. In 1710 the marshal covered the northern borders of France by a system of skilfully constructed lines. John Churchill, whose influence in England had been greatly weakened, became cautious, and would not attack; and though he turned the lines by a fine manoeuvre in 1711, he gained only insignificant success. In 1712, on the accession to power of the Tories he was deprived of all his commands.
Research Duke of Marlborough