Tower and Town, July 2020

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Editorial: John Churchill - Duke Of Marlborough

How odd that the dukedom of John Churchill, for whom Blenheim Palace was built by a grateful government, should be named after our town. What is the connection? See Why Marlborough? later.

But first a few words about John Churchill. The gratitude of Queen Anne and her government and the bestowing of Blenheim Palace upon him arose from his repeatedly defeating the armies of Louis XIV - notably at Blenheim in Austria in 1704, but at numerous other battles and sieges less well remembered. This was at a time when the French armies and fortifications were the standard against which all others were judged.

So great was this reversal of fortune that French children had a song 'Le Duc de Marlborough va en guerre' and if they were naughty were threatened with him as later English children were threatened with Napoleon.

He lived through difficult times. He served first Charles II and then James II (to whom he owed his advancement) with distinction, but as James' Catholicism became more pronounced Churchill transferred his allegiance to William of Orange. However, tainted by suspicions of Jacobitism from William and his entourage, he was sidelined.

Then, in line with the old adage 'It's not what you know - it's who you know,' when Queen Anne (a lifelong friend of Churchill's wife) came to the throne in 1702, he was placed in command of the British armies in the War of the Spanish Succession. The rest, as they say, is history.

Alexander Kirk-Wilson