for the first fifty years of his life was identified with the high church and tory party. The fanaticism of papists or puritans was equally abhorrent to him. He was not of the stuff of which martyrs are made, his practical sense being as conspicuous as his want of high-wrought principle. The church of England, by its moderation, its dignity, and its intimate connection with the whole fabric of English society, was thoroughly congenial to his temperament. To have betrayed the church would, to say the least, have cost him a severe strain, to which nothing could have persuaded him but the strongest possible perception of his own interests.
Upon James's accession Churchill was sent to Paris to compliment Louis XIV, and to express gratitude for past subsidies with a view to their continuance. He was at the coronation of James on 23 April 1685, was sworn gentleman of the bedchamber on 25 April, and on 14 May raised to the English peerage as Baron Churchill of Sandridge in Hertfordshire. Upon the insurrection of Monmouth he received command of the troops at Salisbury, harassed the movements of the insurgents, and was appointed major-general (3 July 1685). He commanded under Feversham at Sedgemoor (6 July), and by his coolness recovered the disorder into which the royal troops were thrown by the night attack of the rebels. He was rewarded by the colonelcy of the third troop of horse guards (commission dated 1 Aug. 1685). After the battle he helped a sister of one of the prisoners to obtain an interview with James. Even Macaulay admits that cruelty was not one of Churchill's ‘numerous faults.’ But he prophesied too truly that the marble chimneypiece which he touched was ‘not harder than the king.’
Churchill seems to have taken no part in the political measures of the new reign. His position at the court of the Princess Anne was secure, and if his own strength of principle were doubtful, so keen an observer with such opportunities for gauging the calibre of James's intellect must have perceived the insanity of the royal policy. Dykvelt on his mission to England in 1687 was instructed to communicate especially with Churchill, whose influence with Anne and in the army gave him great importance. On his return to Holland he brought a letter to William (dated 17 May 1687) in which Churchill declared that the princess would suffer death rather than change her religion, and that he was equally determined, though in any other cause he would give his own life for the king. Though he could not (or did not) ‘lead the life of a saint,’ he was resolved on occasion ‘to show the resolution of a martyr.’ In the following summer, according to a story told by his first biographer, who professes to have heard the story at the time from Churchill himself, he remonstrated with the king and hinted at the necessary consequences of his policy. James, however, continued to trust implicitly in his fidelity. On 4 Aug. 1688 Churchill sent another message to William saying that he put his ‘honour absolutely in the hands of the prince’ (Dalrymple, Memoirs, &c. pt. i. bk. v. pp. 62,121). After the first desertions to William, James called together his officers in London, when Churchill, just made lieutenant-general (commission dated 7 Nov. 1688), was the first to vow that he would shed the last drop of his blood for James (Clarke, Life of James, ii. 219). Churchill was in command at Salisbury, where James had collected a force to oppose William's march. He advised James to inspect the troops at Warminster, but a violent bleeding from the nose detained the king at Salisbury. It was afterwards rumoured among the Jacobites that Churchill, with Kirk, Trelawny, and other traitors, had intended to seize James and carry him to William, and it was even said that Churchill had proposed himself to stab the king (see Macpherson, Original Papers, i. 280–3, for the evidence). Churchill was not a conspirator of the Colonel Blood order, and it is impossible to believe that he would have committed a crime which must have been repudiated by those in whose interest it was intended. At a council of war on 24 Nov. 1688 James decided upon a retreat in opposition to Churchill's advice. The same night Churchill escaped and joined the prince at Axminster, leaving behind him a dignified letter about his conscience and his religion.
Anne heard the news at London. Alarmed at the consequences to her favourites and herself, she resolved to fly. Lady Churchill arranged the details, and on the night of the 25th escaped with her to the house of the bishop of London, and thence to Nottingham [see under Anne, 1665–1714]. Churchill himself was employed by William in restoring order among the royal troops who were disbanded by Feversham upon an order from James. He was one of the peers who formed a kind of provisional government during the interregnum. During the vehement debates in the Convention parliament, which settled the form in which the resolution was to be carried out, Churchill voted for a regency, but afterwards absented himself from the House of Peers, as Coxe states (i. 33), ‘from motives of delicacy.’ The Churchills, however, took a most important part by per
