374 MACPHER80N AND THE NAIRN E PAPERS July have been neglected by Marlborough's wife when she caused her defence to be compiled in her old age.^ The writer of the Life of James II thought it ' hard (considering what has happen'd since) to make a right judgment ' of the intentions of Marlborough and Godolphin ^ in engaging in Jacobite intrigues, ' and whether they had any further aim in what they did, than to secure themselves from the just resentment of an offended Prince (James II), should he fortune to return by other means '.* This is undoubtedly the correct explanation of Marlborough's conduct, but to earn his pardon he had to commit acts of disloyalty to William. These acts completely refute the theory that his communications with St. Germain were sanctioned by William, and the evidence about them is not, as Colonel Parnell asserted, based exclusively on papers produced by the Jacobites.* In 1691 Marlborough gave two Jacobite agents, Sackville and Lloyd, an account of all the forces, preparations and designes both in England Scotland, and Ireland. ... He gave likewise an account of the Fleet, and in fine of whatever was intended either by sea or land, which concurring with the informations they had from other hands was a great argument of his sincerity. He also made some vague promises to induce the English army in Flanders to desert.^ He and his wife induced Anne to write ' a most penitential and dutyfull letter ' to her father, which was dated 1 December 1691, but which Lloyd was unable to deliver until James was at La Hogue, awaiting the issue of the naval battle.® In the following January Marlborough was dismissed from all his employments, and in May arrested and confined in the Tower. Colonel Parnell, who ignored Marlborough's imprison- ment, states that his dismissal was ' of a purely personal nature ', and that ' the aversion of the queen to the Princess Anne was at the root of the matter cannot be doubted '.' This theory might possibly suffice, but for Marlborough's incarceration in the Tower. Contemporaries were evidently puzzled : the different reasons they assigned for William's actions prove this. Apart from Marlborough himself, the two persons who were in the best positions to reveal the truth were James and William. The
- Account of the Conduct of the Ducheaa of Marlborough, 1742.
' Colonel Parnell includes Godolphin among the ' four men of all others ' who had accomplished the Revolution. Godolphin was, on the contrary, one of the most faithful adherents of James II. » Life of James II, ii. 444. * ^nte, xii. 254.
- Life of James II, ii. 444-50. This portion of the life was corrected by James's
80n, the Old Pretender.
- Ibid. 476-7.
' Ante, xii. 270. This is the explanation given in the Account of the Conduct of the Duchess of Marlborough, pp. 42-3.
