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 and disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of action." His career of victory was unchecked by one defeat, and resembled in more than one particular the dazzling triumphs of Napoleon a century later. The first campaign, in which several important fortresses were reduced, was characterized by the wary vigilance of the general rather than by action. He was rewarded, however, on December 14th, 1702, by the dignities of Marquis of Blandford and Duke of Marlborough. A sad calamity, indeed, cast its gloom over this flush of prosperity. The duke's only son, a youth of seventeen, died of the small-pox. The next campaign, which began in March, 1703, was not very satisfactory to the English general who, moreover, was harassed by political news from home, and the progress of the tory party. At this juncture he entered into intimate correspondence with Prince Eugene, and communicated to him a scheme for changing the theatre of war, in the next campaign, and marching to the Danube. The justification of the plan was the glorious victories obtained at Donawerth and Blenheim in July and August, 1704. The emperor of Germany testified his gratitude to the victor by making him a prince of the empire, to which dignity was annexed in the following year the extensive domain of Mildenheim. Great enthusiasm was aroused at home by these triumphs. Addison was called out of obscurity to celebrate the glories of the duke in a poem, the Campaign. His grace was thought to have assumed almost a royal state, eating his meals alone with gentlemen standing behind him. He received from the crown a grant in perpetuity of the manors of Woodstock and Wootton, where was built at the public expense the palace which still bears the name of Blenheim. After occupying the winter with matters of civil government in England, Marlborough again sailed for the continent in March, 1705. His great military plans were frequently thwarted by the incompetency of his allies, especially by the Dutch deputies, and no brilliant achievement signalized the year. When the army had retired to winter quarters its leader visited Vienna, Berlin, Hanover, and the Hague, animating the various members of the alliance of which he was the soul. At home he found a coolness had sprung up between his duchess and the queen.
In the campaign of 1706 he performed a great exploit by forcing the French lines at Tirlemont, and on May 23rd gained a splendid victory at Ramifies, after a bloody contest of five hours. In this battle the duke twice narrowly escaped with his life. The history of the war in 1707 presents no event of greater interest than Marlborough's interview with Charles XII. of Sweden, from whom as well as from other European sovereigns the duke received honours and compliments more or less substantial. The battle of Oudenard, which was fought on the 30th June, 1708, and continued with unabated fury after the darkness of night had fallen over the field, resulted in another decisive triumph for the English general. France, however, was still unsubdued, although the glory of the Grand Monarque was sadly dimmed in his old age. Another fierce struggle for the mastery took place on the 31st of August, 1709, at Malplaquet, where each opposing army numbered about one hundred thousand combatants, including their finest regiments, with an unusually strong force of artillery. The conflict was most murderous; and though the French were defeated and compelled to retreat, their loss of fifteen thousand killed and wounded was exceeded by the loss of the allies, which amounted to twenty thousand. Malplaquet was the last of Marlborough's great victories. He continued in command of the forces during the campaigns of 1710 and 1711; but his fall was already resolved on. The nation was growing weary of the burdens of a long war, and wished for peace. The great duke's enemies became bolder in their attacks on him, as his influence at the palace diminished. He was bitterly assailed in parliament and by the press. The terrible pamphleteer. Swift, was but one among a host of inferior writers that attacked him. He was charged not only with making money by contracts and the sale of officers' commissions, but with a design to prolong the war in order to increase his business.
Unfortunately the penuriousness of his early life, when he was the poor son of a ruined cavalier, had grown into confirmed habits of avarice, which gave a colour to the vile accusations brought against the greatest general of the time. His former sins of treason too recoiled upon him in old age. For it was principally through the machinations of Harley and St. John, whom he had befriended, and of Mrs. Masham (see Masham), who owed everything to the duchess of Marlborough, that the Churchills were overthrown. True, the imperious and grasping disposition of the duchess became more uncontrollable, as the queen grew less disposed to submit to her dictation. The definitive rupture between Anne and the duchess occurred on the 6th of April, 1710. In August, 1710, the whig ministry was dismissed during the absence of Marlborough on the continent. While he clung to his command and various lucrative offices, the duke had to bear with the superciliousness of St. John and Harley, who had become his masters. At length on the 1st of January, 1712, after enduring neglect and insult from the court and ministers, he was deprived of all his offices. Soon after a charge of peculation was brought against him in parliament, which it was found convenient to drop unprosecuted, leaving a damaging stigma on the great general's name. "Such a fall," says Burnet, "has not happened since the days of Belisarius." Marlborough's treasons were indeed finding him out. There is reason to believe that Harley, earl of Oxford, possessed evidence in the duke's handwriting which would have sent him to the Tower, and possibly to the block. An interview between the minister and the general took place at Thomas Harley's house in James Street, Westminster, which resulted in Marlborough's quitting England almost immediately, November, 1712. The same power which compelled this mysterious journey (the possession of damning evidence against Marlborough), is supposed to have led to the suppression of proceedings against the earl of Oxford in the succeeding reign. After tampering with the tories, the jacobites, and the Hanoverians, Marlborough recognized the sovereignty of George I. He entered London publicly the day after Queen Anne's death, to the great scandal of Dr. Sacheverel. He was disappointed at not being appointed one of the regency; but being ere long reinstated in his offices of captain-general and master of the ordnance, he cared little for the king's personal dislike to him. Although he is charged with having advanced a sum of money to the Pretender, which helped to sustain the rebellion of 1715, it is certain that his prudent counsels to the government greatly promoted the defeat of that rebellion. During his latter years he suffered from paralysis; and though he continued to attend in his seat in parliament until seven months before his death, his appearance offered so great a contrast to the noble grace of his prime manhood, as to give force to Johnson's poignant line—
" From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow."
A final stroke of paralysis terminated the duke's life on the 16th of June, 1722, in the seventy-second year of his age. His remains were interred with great pomp in Westminster abbey at the expense of his wife, not of the nation. At her death they were removed to Blenheim, and laid by her side. Anecdotes abound illustrative of the greatness and the littleness of this remarkable man. His sweetness of temper, his humanity, his intrepidity, his sagacity, his falseness and mean avarice, have been recorded by many pens. Notwithstanding his great ability in the field, Marlborough is credited with no improvement in the science of war. He left the military art as he found it. Had his education, which was neglected, been carefully superintended, a combination of mathematical and military science with intuitive genius might have made him indeed the Napoleon of his time.—R. H.
MARLBOROUGH, Sarah, duchess of, was born in 1660, and was the younger daughter of Richard Jennings, Esq. of Sandrach, Hertfordshire, the representative of a family which had suffered in the cause of royalty during the period of the Commonwealth. At an early age Sarah was placed in the household of the duchess of York, where she formed that intimacy with the Princess Anne, which was afterwards productive of such momentous consequences. She was beautiful, high-spirited, and attractive, and her hand was eagerly sought by many eligible suitors; among others, by Lord Lindsey, afterwards marquis of Ancaster. But she rejected them all for the poor, but handsome, insinuating, and gallant Colonel Churchill, and in spite of the opposition of his family, was married to him in 1678. On the marriage of the Princess Anne to Prince George of Denmark in 1683, Lady Churchill was appointed one of her maids of honour,
