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John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, KG, PC (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.[a]) was an English soldier and statesman. From a gentry family, he served as a page at the court of the House of Stuart under James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s, earning military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill. He is known for never having lost a battle.[1][2]

"Duke of Marlborough" and "John Churchill" redirect here. For subsequent dukes, see Duke of Marlborough (title). For others of this name, see John Churchill (disambiguation).

General His Grace

The Duke of Marlborough

KG, PC

Henrietta Godolphin

(1650-05-26)26 May 1650
Ashe House, Devon, England

16 June 1722(1722-06-16) (aged 72)[a]
Windsor Lodge, Berkshire, England

Churchill

Sarah Jennings (m. 1677 or 1678)

7, including:

Winston Churchill

Elizabeth Drake

England (1667–1707)
Great Britain (1707–1722)

English Army
British Army

General

Commander-in-Chief of the Forces
Master-General of the Ordnance

Knight of the Order of the Garter

Churchill's role in defeating the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 helped secure James on the throne, but he was a key player in the military conspiracy that led to James being deposed during the Glorious Revolution. Rewarded by William III with the title Earl of Marlborough, persistent charges of Jacobitism led to his fall from office and temporary imprisonment in the Tower of London. William recognised his abilities by appointing him as his deputy in Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) before the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, but not until the accession of Queen Anne in 1702 did he secure his fame and fortune.


Marriage to Sarah Jennings and her relationship with Anne ensured Marlborough's rise, first to the captain-generalcy of British forces, then to a dukedom. As de facto leader of Allied forces in the Low Countries, his victories at battles of Blenheim (1704), of Ramillies (1706), of Oudenarde (1708), and of Malplaquet (1709) ensured his place in history as one of Europe's great generals. His wife's stormy relationship with the Queen, and her subsequent dismissal from court, was central to his own fall. Incurring Anne's disfavour, and caught between Tory and Whig factions, Marlborough was forced from office and went into self-imposed exile. He returned to favour with the accession of George I to the throne in 1714, but a stroke in 1716 ended his career.


Marlborough's leadership of the Allied armies fighting Louis XIV from 1701 to 1710 consolidated Britain's emergence as a front-rank power, while his ability to maintain unity in the fractious coalition demonstrated his diplomatic skills. He is often remembered by military historians as much for his organisational and logistic skills as his tactical abilities. However, he was also instrumental in moving away from the siege warfare that dominated the Nine Years' War. Churchill secured a reputation in Europe that was unrivaled until the rise of Napoleon.[3]

Early service (1678–1700)[edit]

Crisis[edit]

In November 1677, William of Orange married James's eldest daughter, Mary, and in March 1678, the Earl of Danby negotiated an Anglo-Dutch defensive alliance. Churchill was sent to the Hague to make arrangements for an expeditionary force, although English troops did not arrive in significant numbers until after the Peace of Nijmegen ended the war on 10 August.[18]

Legacy[edit]

Assessment[edit]

Historian John H. Lavalle argues that:

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(1999). Marlborough. Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 1-84022-200-X.

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(1973). Marlborough as Military Commander (1989 ed.). Spellmount Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-0-946771-12-7.

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—— (1998). . Wordsworth Editions. ISBN 1-85326-694-9.

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Churchill, Winston

—— (2002b). , Bk. 1, vols. i & ii. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-10633-0.

Marlborough: His Life and Times

—— (2002c). Marlborough: His Life and Times, Bk. 2, vols. iii & iv. University of Chicago Press.  0-226-10635-7.

ISBN

(1983). The Great Marlborough & His Duchess. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-29778-225-4.

Cowles, Virginia

(1847). Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough. London. 6 volumes.

Coxe, William

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"The Armorial Bearings of Sir Winston Churchill"

Cruickshanks, E; Hayton, DW, eds. (2002). The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690–1715; Churchill, George (1654–1710), of Windsor Little Park. . ISBN 978-0-521-77221-1.

Cambridge University Press

Duffy, Christopher (1987). The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. Wordsworth Military Library.  0-7102-1024-8.

ISBN

Field, Ophelia (2003). Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough: The Queen's Favourite. St Martins.  978-0-312-31466-8.

ISBN

Gregg, Edward (1980). (2001 ed.). Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 978-0-7100-0400-0.

Queen Anne

Hamilton, Elizabeth (1968). The Backstairs Dragon: The Life of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford. Hamish Hamilton.

Harris, Tim (2006). Revolution: The Great Crisis of the British Monarchy, 1685–1720. Penguin Books.  978-0-7139-9759-0.

ISBN

Hattendorf, John B. (May 2014). "Churchill, John, first duke of Marlborough (1650–1722)". (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5401. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

(2001). The Marlboroughs. Penguin. ISBN 0-670-88677-7.

Hibbert, Christopher

(2008). Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius. Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-00-722571-2.

Holmes, Richard

Ingrao, Charles (2000). The Habsburg Monarchy. Cambridge University Press.  978-0-521-78505-1.

ISBN

(1993). Marlborough. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37593-2.

Jones, J.R.

(1963). The Nobility in the Revolution of 1688. University of Hull.

Kenyon, J.P.

Lavalle, John H. (2004). . In James C. Bradford (ed.). International Encyclopedia of Military History. Vol. 2. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95033-0.

"Marlborough, John Churchill, 1st Duke of"

Lesaffer, Randall (n.d.). . Oxford Public International Law. Retrieved 25 July 2019.

"The Wars of Louis XIV in Treaties (Part V): The Peace of Nijmegen (1678–1679)"

(1999). The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. Longman. ISBN 0-582-05629-2.

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(1968). The History of England (abridged). Penguin. ISBN 0-14-043133-0.

Macaulay, Thomas

McKay, Derek (1977). Prince Eugene of Savoy. Thames and Hudson.  0-500-87007-1.

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McKay, Derek; Scott, H.M. (1983). . Addison-Wesley Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-48553-2.

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Miller, John (2000). James II. Yale University Press.  0-300-08728-4.

ISBN

Norrhem, Svante (2010). Christina och Carl Piper: en biografi [Christina and Carl Piper: a biography] (in Swedish). Lund: Historiska media.  978-91-86297-11-4.

ISBN

. Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)

"Marlborough"

Parker, Robert (1747). Memoirs of the most remarkable military transactions from the year 1683 to 1718. Containing a more particular account than any yet published of the several battles, sieges, etc. ... By Captain R. Parker ... Published by his son. S. Austen.

Schreurs, Eugeen (2013). "Church music and minstrel musc". Music and the City: Musical Cultures and Urban Societies in the Southern Netherlands and Beyond, c. 1650–1800. Leuven University Press.  978-90-5867-955-0.

ISBN

Somerset, Anne (2013). Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion. Knopf Publishing.  978-0-307-96288-1.

ISBN

Storrs, Christopher (2006). The Resilience of the Spanish Monarchy 1665–1700. Oxford University Press.  0-19-924637-8.

ISBN

(1979). The First Churchill: The Life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Secker & Warburg. ISBN 978-0-43652-046-4.

Thomson, George Malcolm

Thompson, Andrew (2013). . Mainz: European History Online, Institute of European History. Retrieved 17 March 2018.

"The Grand Alliances"

Tincey, John (2005). Sedgemoor 1685: Marlborough's First Victory. Leo Cooper.  978-1-84415-147-9.

ISBN

(1930–1934). England Under Queen Anne. Longmans, Green and Co. 3 volumes.

Trevelyan, G.M.

, ed. (1895). The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620. Exeter: For the author, by H. S. Eland;

Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.

De Graaf, Ronald (2021). Friso: het tragische leven van Johan Willem Friso [Friso: the tragic life of John William Friso] (in Dutch). Boom.  978-90-2443-676-7.

ISBN

Wijn, J.W. (1956). Het Staatsche Leger: Deel VIII Het tijdperk van de Spaanse Successieoorlog (The Dutch States Army: Part VIII The era of the War of the Spanish Succession) (in Dutch). Martinus Nijhoff.

Nimwegen, Olaf van (2020). De Veertigjarige Oorlog 1672–1712: de strijd van de Nederlanders tegen de Zonnekoning [The 40 Years' War 1672–1712: the Dutch struggle against the Sun King] (in Dutch). Prometheus.  978-90-446-3871-4.

ISBN

Nimwegen, Olaf van (1995). [The Subsistence of the Army: Logistics and Strategy of the Allied, Particularly the Dutch, Army during the War of the Spanish Succession in the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire (1701-1712)]. Bataafsche Leeuw.

De subsistentie van het leger: Logistiek en strategie van het Geallieerde en met name het Staatse leger tijdens de Spaanse Successieoorlog in de Nederlanden en het Heilige Roomse Rijk (1701-1712)

Blok, P.J.; Molhuysen, P.C. (1911). . Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek. Deel 1.

"Heinsius, Antonie"

Marlborough and the British Army (London: G.P. Putnam, 1924).

C.T. Atkinson

A.J. Veenendaal, and Rolof van Hövell tot Westerflier, eds., Marlborough: Soldier and Diplomat Protagonists in International Perspective. (Rotterdam: Karwansaray Publishing, 2012).

John B. Hattendorf

The Early Churchills (London: Macmillan, 1956).

A. L. Rowse

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