Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of (1650-1722). The son of Winston Churchill, a West Country gentleman impoverished after supporting Charles I, Marlborough was brought up in modest circumstances. With the Restoration, Marlborough's father was knighted and given a post at court. However, he died a debtor, and the experience of poverty marked Marlborough. In 1665 his sister Arabella was appointed maid of honour to the Duchess of York, eventually becoming mistress to James Duke of York (later James II). Marlborough became a page to the duke shortly afterwards.

In 1667 Marlborough was commissioned as an ensign in the guards. He served in the garrison of Tangiers and with a naval expedition before returning to court, when he had an affair with Lady Castlemaine, the king's mistress, once escaping through a window when the king appeared. Charles forgave him, saying: ‘You do it to get your bread.’ He served with the fleet during the third Dutch war and in 1673 transferred to the Duke of Monmouth's Regiment in French service, and fought under Turenne. In 1678 he was appointed a colonel in the British army, being expanded for what seemed an imminent war against France. Marlborough was sent on a diplomatic mission to William of Orange, but war did not materialize, and he found himself in Europe accompanying the Duke of York, unpopular in England because of anti-Catholic hysteria and in danger of being excluded from the succession.

Marlborough prospered after Charles's victory over the Exclusionists in 1681, becoming a baron in the Scots peerage and colonel of the Royal Dragoons. When James came to the throne in 1685 he was given an English peerage, and later that year played a leading part in the Sedgemoor campaign, although most of the credit went to the indecisive C-in-C, the Earl of Feversham. When William landed at Torbay in 1688 Marlborough was Feversham's lieutenant general, and at a crucial council of war advised James to advance to attack the invaders. Feversham recommended a retreat, and when James decided to fall back Marlborough deserted to William. He was motivated by self-interest mingled with realism. Although he owed everything to James, his early life had shown him the risk of being on the losing side, and James's conduct did not inspire confidence.

Marlborough was confirmed as lieutenant general, elevated to earl of Marlborough in 1689, and tasked with reconstructing the army. He was then sent to Flanders with 8, 000 men for the Prince of Waldeck's allied army. He led the decisive counter-attack at Walcourt, inducing Waldeck to tell William that ‘Marlborough in spite of his youth has displayed in this one battle greater military capacity than do most generals after a long series of wars.’ In 1690 he was granted independent command, and led an expedition which took Cork and Kinsale from the Jacobites, prompting William to declare that ‘No officer living who has seen so little service as my Lord Marlborough is so fit for great commands.’

In 1692 Marlborough was dismissed from all his posts and imprisoned in the Tower. He had remained in contact with James II, leading William, who had harboured doubts about his reliability after his conduct in 1688, to suspect him of treachery. Marlborough was soon released, but his rehabilitation was gradual. In 1695 the death of Queen Mary, an implacable enemy, allowed him to return to court, and he was reconciled with William by 1698. But he missed the League of Augsburg war, including the battles of Steenkirk and Neerwinden and William's triumphant siege of Namur.

William died in 1702, and Marlborough stood high in the favour of his successor Anne, the staunchly Protestant daughter of James II. Marlborough's wife Sarah had been in James's service when he was duke of York, and had become Anne's close friend. In their private correspondence Anne was ‘Mrs Morley’ and Sarah ‘Mrs Freeman’. Sarah dominated the royal household, and was to play an important part in maintaining the power of Marlborough's Whig political associates. Even if William had survived there was little doubt that Marlborough would play a leading role in the War of the Spanish Succession, and Anne's succession left him in a position of unrivalled power, with the office of captain general.

Marlborough's long absence from the military stage did not encourage Dutch confidence. In 1702 he chafed at Dutch slowness in prosecuting the siege of Venlo and was unable to persuade the Dutch to attack the French, briefly at a disadvantage, but by the end of the campaigning season he had captured several important fortresses, including Liège. His successes had to be set against Allied failures in southern Germany and Spain, but they ensured him promotion to a dukedom. The queen had granted him $5, 000 a year from Post Office revenues and although an attempt to persuade parliament to settle the sum on him and his successors failed, the marriages of their daughters helped knit the Marlboroughs into the Whig aristocracy. They lost their only son Jack to smallpox in early 1703, and Marlborough set off for the new campaigning season with a heavy heart.

The campaign went badly. Marlborough had conceived a ‘Grand Design’ of manoeuvring Villars out of the Lines of Brabant, fortifications running from the Meuse to Antwerp, but its inherent fragility combined with awkward Dutch generals to produce stalemate. That summer he considered a more ambitious project for the following season, marching to the Moselle to put pressure on Franco-Bavarian troops who had beaten imperial forces and were threatening Vienna. His political allies were under pressure from Tories who argued that resources should be concentrated on Spain and the fleet, and it took all his skill to persuade the government, the queen, and the Dutch of the need to support the empire. By the spring of 1704 it was clear that the Moselle would not do: he would have to march to the Danube.

The conduct of the Blenheim campaign, when Marlborough had to move an Allied army of over 40, 000 men, rising to about 60, 000 as other contingents joined, for more than 250 miles (402 km), reveals his mastery of organization. Capt Robert Parker opined: ‘Surely never was such a march carried on with more order and regularity, and with less fatigue to both man and horse.’ He set off from Bedburg, near Cologne, on 20 May, and on 10 June met the imperialist commander Prince Eugène of Savoy at Mundelsheim, south-east of Stuttgart. On 2 July he stormed the Schellenberg, key to Donauworth, which left Bavaria open before him. He spent the next weeks uncharacteristically laying waste the country rather than seeking a battle, but on Eugène's urgent summons he marched to join him near Blenheim where, on 13 August, he beat Tallard in the campaign's conclusive battle. It was typical of him to tell his wife the good news first: ‘I have not time to say more but beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her army has had a Glorious Victory, Monsieur Tallard and two other Generals are in my coach and I am following the rest’.

Blenheim saved the empire, destroyed the myth of French invincibility, and, as the Duc de Saint-Simon declared in his Diaries, left Louis XIV ‘with this ignominy and loss … reduced to defending his own lands’. The following year, campaigning on familiar territory, Marlborough pierced the Lines of Brabant near Tirlemont and pushed on to confront Villeroi near what later became the battlefield of Waterloo, but Dutch hesitation deprived him of a battle. In 1706 he moved through the destroyed section of the Lines to meet Villeroi at Ramillies, where he won another major victory. As usual he did not spare himself. His horse threw him in a cavalry mêlée, and an equerry who helped him remount was decapitated by a cannon ball as he did so. He went on to overrun the Spanish Netherlands, but the success did not bring a prompt end to the war, for although Louis offered peace on terms that the Dutch might have accepted, the English would not.

The allied cause did not prosper in 1707: in Spain, the allies were beaten by Marlborough's nephew Berwick at Almanza, and Eugène's attack on Toulon failed. At home Marlborough's grip on favour slackened as Abigail Hill began to supplant Sarah in the queen's affections, and Godolphin, his closest political ally, barely retained power. In 1708 Marlborough beat Vendôme and Burgundy at Oudenarde, and went on to take Lille after a long siege. There was no peace and Marlborough, anxious for an end to the war, found himself increasingly out of sympathy with his Whig supporters. He defeated Villars at Malplaquet in 1709 in what he described to Godolphin as ‘a very murdering battle’. Yet he had lost none of his old skill, for in 1710 he manoeuvred Villars out of the Lines of Ne Plus Ultra and took Bouchain. It was his last victory. Sarah had been dismissed, Godolphin had fallen, and Marlborough was dismissed from the post of captain general.

In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht ended the war in Allied favour, although better terms might have been obtained in 1709. Parliament voted that some of the payments made by Marlborough had been illegal, but he was not impeached. On the accession of George I in 1714 he was restored to the post of captain general, but he was crippled by a stroke in 1716 and died after another in 1722.

Marlborough has good claim to being Britain's greatest soldier. As a tactician he was keen-eyed and quick-thinking, with a knack for putting an opponent off balance, and it was this, rather than real innovation, that brought him success on the battlefield. His personal courage was a beacon to others. Not only were his campaign plans brilliantly conceived, but they demonstrated a mastery of logistics that helped endear him to soldiers who felt he had their interests at heart. They nicknamed him ‘Corporal John’, and responded when they knew he needed all their efforts and heard that ‘My Lord Duke desires that the foot should step out.’ As an alliance manager and generalissimo he was unrivalled, always able to flatter with the impression of sincerity. He bore a political and military burden shouldered by few of his countrymen before or since.

Marlborough was notoriously tight-fisted, regretting an annuity made to a clerk who had saved him from capture. He hoped to receive a sweetener of 2 million livres from Louis for promoting peace, and happily made money from most of his offices. Yet his perseverance shines out across the centuries. A victim of severe (probably stress-related) headaches, after Ramillies he pursued the French long into the night with a splitting head, and when he lay down to rest on his cloak he offered half of it to a Dutch representative.

Bibliography

• Barnett, Correlli, Marlborough (London, 1974).
• Chandler, David, Marlborough as a Military Commander (London, 1973)

— Richard Holmes

The English general and statesman John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), was responsible for the British victory at Blenheim in 1704, which is second only to the triumph of Waterloo in British military annals.

Though the Duke of Marlborough was active during three earlier reigns, it was under Queen Anne that he became famous. In the century-long (1689-1783) struggle with France, no war was longer or bloodier than that of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713), and Marlborough's role in that war was decisive. The son of an obscure squire, through his ability as soldier and diplomat Marlborough rose to the highest rank in the army and in the peerage, was given the palace of Blenheim by a grateful nation, and founded a distinguished family represented in the 20th century by Sir Winston Churchill.

John Churchill was born about June 1, 1650, at Ashe in Devonshire, was educated at St. Paul's School in London, and as early as 1667 had a position with the Duke of York and a commission in the guards. Strikingly handsome and charming, Churchill was also ambitious and acquisitive. He might have married for wealth and position, but he married for love, choosing the beautiful and imperious Sarah Jennings, already (1678) a favorite with Princess Anne. When the Duke of York became king, Churchill continued to enjoy his favor. He became Baron Churchill in 1685 and held military commands but took no active part in politics beyond consolidating his position with Princess Anne.

The Revolution of 1688 saw Marlborough desert James II at a critical point, and his wife helped persuade Anne to desert the King, her father. Churchill's assistance to the new king was rewarded. William III made him Earl of Marlborough and gave him commands in Ireland and on the Continent. A rift soon developed between the King and his sister-in-law Anne, and the Churchills were involved. When Marlborough was discovered writing to the exiled James, he was dismissed from his posts on suspicion of treason. Only in 1701, with war against France (over dividing up the Spanish Empire) about to break out, did William relent, appointing Marlborough commander in chief. Marlborough was then in his fiftysecond year; had he died at this point, his name would be practically unknown.

With William III's death (1702) Anne became queen, and she put Marlborough in charge of military and diplomatic affairs, with his friend Sidney Godolphin in charge of finances and Robert Harley manager of the Commons. It was this three-man team which successfully carried on the first 6 years of the war. These were also the years of Marlborough's great victories. Campaigns in 1702 and 1703 were uneventful largely because Marlborough was engaged in strenuous efforts to keep together the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV of France.

Military Victories

In the third year of the War of the Spanish Succession, Marlborough learned of the French plan to send an army through Germany to attack the Austrian capital, Vienna. Fearing that the cautious Dutch would recall their troops if they suspected his true design, Marlborough feinted an attack at France and then marched his troops clear across central Europe to the upper Danube. At Blenheim (near Augsburg) a decisive engagement took place on Aug. 15, 1704. The French forces were about equal to the Allied army under Marlborough - roughly 50,000. A cavalry charge across marshy land against the French center turned the tide. The cavalry broke through, and the enemy forces were disorganized and, by the end of the day, completely routed.

Marlborough had saved Vienna and had kept the empire in the war. At a single stroke he had also raised the prestige of British arms higher than at any time since Agin-court (1415). A hero and high in favor with the Queen, Marlborough was given a dukedom. Anne presented him with the royal manor of Woodstock and ordered a palace built for him there, named Blenheim after his victory.

No succeeding triumph was as splendid as Blenheim. At Ramillies (1706), Oudenaarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709) the duke was successful, but each of these battles was costlier and less decisive than the one before. By 1709 France was ready to negotiate a peace, and the English people were becoming tired of the war. The breakdown of negotiations between France and England weakened Marlborough's position at home. His friend Godolphin had been forced into too close an alliance with the Whigs for either the Queen or Harley. In preaching favor to the Whigs, Lady Marlborough acted more as political tutor to Anne than as friend, and gradually the duchess lost the Queen's affection. With Anne's support Harley tried to take over the government. He failed in 1708 and was driven into opposition. Two years later he was able to realize his ambition. Anne dismissed Godolphin in August 1710 and made Harley lord treasurer.

Marlborough did not lose his post of commander in chief until late December 1711. Meanwhile, the new government negotiated a secret peace with France behind his back and accused him of corruption. The charges were dropped, but the duke was glad to see the last of the Harley administration on the death of Queen Anne. Marlborough was active in welcoming her German successor, George I, in 1714. He was given back his military offices; but by 1716, already broken in health, he suffered a paralytic stroke from which he never recovered. He died of a second stroke on June 16, 1722.

Further Reading

Marlborough's military dispatches are printed in Sir George Murray, ed., Letters and Dispatches of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough (5 vols., 1845; repr. 1968). Much of his correspondence with Godolphin and others, from the manuscripts at Blenheim, is in William Coxe, Memoirs of John, Duke of Marlborough (3 vols., 1818-1819; 2d ed., 6 vols., 1820). Of the many biographies of Marlborough, two deserve special mention: Sir Winston Churchill, in Marlborough: His Life and Times (4 vols., 1933-1938; abridged in one volume, by Henry Steele Commager, 1970), is intent on vindicating his ancestor from Thomas Babington Macaulay's aspersions, and the work is full of special pleading; it prints little not already found in Coxe, but it has some splendid battle pieces. More accurate and professional, and much more modest in length, is Ivor F. Burton, The Captain General: The Career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1968).

Additional Sources

Barnett, Correlli, The first Churchill: Marlborough, soldier and statesman, New York: Putnam, 1974.

Bevan, Bryan, Marlborough the man: a biography of John Churchill first Duke of Marlborough, London: R. Hale, 1975.

Cowles, Virginia, The great Marlborough and his duchess, New York: Macmillan, 1983.

Defoe, Daniel, A short narrative of the life and actions of His Grace John, D. of Marlborough, New York: AMS Press, 1992.

Jones, J. R. (James Rees), Marlborough, Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Saintsbury, George, Marlborough, Philadelphia: R. West, 1978.

Thomson, George Malcolm, The first Churchill: the life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough, New York: Morrow, 1980, 1979.

For more information on John Churchill 1st duke of Marlborough, visit Britannica.com.

Marlborough, John Churchill, 1st duke of (1650-1722). The most successful general of his age, Marlborough was from 1704 until 1710 the leading European statesman. From page he became confidential emissary to the duke of York (the future James II) and in 1685 after playing a decisive part in defeating Monmouth's rebel army he became a major-general. After 1683 he and his wife Sarah also developed a lasting connection with the future queen Anne.

Churchill made a massive contribution to the success of the Glorious Revolution by organizing a network of officers who defected to William. As reward he became earl of Marlborough. He organized and led a combined operation that took Cork and Kinsale in southern Ireland (1690), but by championing Anne against her sister Mary he provoked his dismissal from all posts (1692).

After 1700, faced with an impending European war, William designated Marlborough to command the British forces in the Low Countries. In 1702 Marlborough manœuvred the French out of territories bordering on the Dutch Republic. Anne made him duke. But in 1704 French armies in Bavaria threatened to force the German allied princes to capitulate, isolating Britain's other major ally, the emperor. Marlborough marched his army to the Danube where at Blenheim (13 August) he inflicted the greatest defeat the French had suffered for 150 years.

In 1705 Marlborough failed in an invasion of France up the Moselle valley, but in 1706 he won a second massive victory at Ramillies. In 1708 he totally defeated a French counter-offensive at Oudenarde, took the fortress of Lille, and planned a final invasion of France. The expensive victory of Malplaquet September 1709) prevented this and convinced a war-weary Britain that Marlborough was committed to an endless war. Dismissed by the Tory government in December 1711 Marlborough exiled himself. Reinstated by George I as captain-general, he supervised suppression of the Jacobite rebellion in 1715.

duke of (märl'bərə, môl'–) , 1650–1722, English general and statesman, one of the greatest military commanders of history. A great strategist and a shrewd diplomat, he has been criticized for inordinate love of wealth and power and for inconstant loyalties in politics.

Under James II and William III

The son of an impoverished squire, he became (1665) a page of the duke of York (later James II) and entered (1667) the army. He rose rapidly under York's patronage and c.1678 married Sarah Jennings (see Marlborough, Sarah Churchill, duchess of), attendant and friend of Princess (later Queen) Anne. Under James II he was active in crushing the rebellion (1685) of the duke of Monmouth and was raised to the peerage and made a major general.

Nevertheless, fearing the religious policies of the Roman Catholic king, and concerned about his own career, he corresponded with William of Orange (later William III) and supported him against James in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was created earl of Marlborough at William's coronation (1689). Marlborough was successful as a military commander in 1689 and 1690, but William's poor treatment of Anne offended him, and William began to resent Marlborough's ambition and ability. When Marlborough began secret communication with the exiled James II, he was discovered and lost royal favor (1692–98).

Power and Dismissal under Anne

In 1702, when Anne ascended the throne, Marlborough reached the fullness of his power. His military genius and remarkable gift for foreign diplomacy were given wide scope in the War of the Spanish Succession. His personal efforts long held together the anti-French alliance. He and Prince Eugene of Savoy together won such victories as Blenheim (1704), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709), and he alone is credited with Ramillies (1706) and countless other triumphs.

Marlborough, made a duke in 1702, also enjoyed political ascendancy, largely as a result of his wife's influence over the queen. Marlborough and his friend Sidney Godolphin, as well as the queen, although earlier bound by personal and religious ties to the Tories, turned to the Whigs, who favored the war while the Tories opposed it. They secured the dismissal of Robert Harley in 1708 and were momentarily paramount in politics. The duchess, however, quarreled with Anne, who came under the influence of Abigail Masham, Harley's cousin; the war was costly, and Marlborough was accused of prolonging it for his personal glory; the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell was unpopular; and in 1710 the Whigs fell, yielding power to Harley and Henry St. John (later Viscount Bolingbroke).

The duke was falsely charged with misappropriating public funds and was dismissed (1711) from office. He returned to England from self-imposed exile upon the accession of George I in 1714 and was given chief command of the army again, but he took little further part in public affairs.

Bibliography

See the duke's letters and dispatches (ed. by Sir George Murray, 1845); the exhaustive biography of him by his descendant Winston S. Churchill (1933–38, repr. 1982) and a short one by M. P. Ashley (1939, repr. 1957); studies by C. T. Atkinson (1921), F. Taylor (1921), I. F. Burton (1968), D. G. Chandler (1973), and D. W. Jones (1988).

Churchill, John, Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), soldier and diplomat. Frequently described as early modern Britain's greatest general, John Churchill was born on 26 May 1650, the son of Elizabeth Churchill and Sir Winston Churchill, an impoverished squire and member of Parliament. He attended Saint Paul's School and then in 1665, due to his father's influence, became page to the duke of York, later James II (ruled 1685–1688). On 14 September 1667 Churchill was commissioned into the army as an ensign in the Foot Guards. He served in Tangier from 1668 to 1670, saw duty with the allied fleet during the Third Dutch War (1672–1674), and was promoted to captain. In 1673 he accompanied the English contingent dispatched to assist Louis XIV (ruled 1643–1715) of France in Flanders and distinguished himself in military action at Maastricht (Maestricht, June 1673), his first major land battle. The following year he was appointed colonel of the English regiment operating abroad and performed gallantly at the battle of Sinzheim (1674).

In 1677 Churchill married Sarah Jennings (1660–1744), lady-in-waiting to Princess Anne, later Queen Anne (ruled 1702–1714). Churchill advanced rapidly. He was created Baron Churchill of Aymouth (Scotland) on 21 December 1682, elevated to the peerage as Baron Sandridge in 1685 and, upon the accession of James II (1685), promoted to major general (3 July 1685) and subsequently lieutenant general (7 November 1688).

With the Glorious Revolution (1688), Churchill promptly changed his allegiance to the new Protestant sovereign William III (ruled 1689–1702), who in 1689 rewarded him with the earldom of Marlborough (after which point he is commonly known as Marlborough) and appointed him a privy councillor. Marlborough was also granted a succession of commands between 1689 and 1691 in Flanders and Ireland, in which he was uniformly successful. He also served for a while as governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Increasingly opposed to William's excessive preferment of his Dutch associates, Marlborough suddenly fell out of favor. In 1692 he was dismissed from his posts and briefly was imprisoned in the Tower of London on suspicion of communicating with Jacobite agents in a plot to restore James II with the support of French military intervention. As these allegations proved groundless, Marlborough was released and, upon reconciling with William, was restored to favor in 1698. He was appointed governor to the duke of Gloucester, was readmitted to the Privy Council, and was returned to his former military rank (18 June 1698). In the face of growing tensions over the Spanish succession, Marlborough was named commander in chief of the Anglo-Dutch forces in Holland (June 1701) and participated in the negotiations held at The Hague to devise a compromise settlement that would satisfy the various claimants and prevent European war.

Following the death of William III on 8 March 1702 and the subsequent accession of Queen Anne, Marlborough reached the peak of his influence. He was appointed captain general of the forces and master general of the ordnance, while his closest ally, Sidney Godolphin, first earl of Godolphin (1645–1712), became lord treasurer. Other Tory supporters took the remaining great offices of state.

Once The Hague deliberations broke down and France's aggressive actions made conflict inevitable, the English, the Austrians, the Dutch, and minor German allies concluded the Grand Alliance (15 May 1702) with a combined army under Marlborough's supreme command. In his first campaign during the War of the Spanish Succession (June 1702) Marlborough relieved pressure on the Dutch by securing a base of operation against French-held fortresses to the south. Overcoming intra-alliance dissension, he successfully pressed on to take the great fortress of Liège (October 1702). For this service he was created duke with a pension of £5,000 a year. He then advanced on the Moselle River. Deceiving the enemy by a feint against Alsace, he swiftly moved to open a crossing of the Danube River at Donauwörth, thus impeding a possible junction of French forces and their Bavarian allies. On 13 August 1704 Marlborough and his confidant, the Austrian commander Prince Eugène (1663–1736), defeated the main French army at Blenheim—a spectacular victory. This was the first major military setback of Louis XIV's reign, and it forced France onto the defensive and saved Austria from near certain invasion. On 23 March 1706 Marlborough won another crushing victory at Ramillies, which led to the expulsion of enemy troops from Italy and the Southern Netherlands. Marlborough and Prince Eugène repulsed a French counteroffensive at Oudenaarde (July 1708) and cleared the road for a direct advance against France. These exploits earned Marlborough a military reputation matched in the eighteenth century only by Frederick the Great (ruled 1740–1786) of Prussia and later by Napoléon I (1769–1821). In recognition Marlborough was made a prince of the empire, and by royal command the magnificent palace of Blenheim was built for him.

Domestically, however, Marlborough's position weakened due to relentless party politics and the growing estrangement between his wife Sarah and Queen Anne, whose former friendship had provided a critical link tying the operational direction of the war to the source of executive power at court. Using a variety of pressure tactics, Marlborough and his ally Lord Treasurer Godolphin managed for a time to coerce the pro-Tory queen into (reluctantly) appointing those congenial Whig ministers who supported their policies. But Sarah became supplanted in Anne's favor by Abigail Masham (d. 1734), an influential Tory sympathizer, and in politics the queen turned for advice to the able Tory leader Robert Harley (1661–1724). Support for the war rapidly declined. Moreover costs steadily mounted, as did war weariness on the allied side. Marlborough, increasingly isolated, was accused of continuing hostilities for personal profit and glory.

The parliamentary elections of 1710 brought in a new and powerful Tory ministry headed by Harley, which enabled Anne to dispense with the personally uncongenial Whig leaders and led to secret negotiations with France. Marlborough remained commander in chief until December 1711, when he was dismissed, falsely charged with corruption and forced into exile on the Continent. Although restored to favor with the accession of George I (ruled 1714–1727), Marlborough, prematurely aged by the strains of war, took no further part in public affairs. He lived in rural retirement until his death, following a paralytic stroke, on 16 June 1722. He was buried with great splendor at Westminster, though his body was later transferred to the chapel at Blenheim, where it was commemorated by an ornate mausoleum.

Bold, energetic, a superb tactician, and a gifted leader, Marlborough advocated swift, offensive action over elaborate maneuvers as the key to decisive victory. In this sense he transcended the military spirit of his age and foreshadowed the more innovative, energetic approach to war typical of the French revolutionary period. His urbanity and tact, discretion and diplomacy were further assets in defusing the inevitable tensions associated with coalition warfare and so made possible the unity essential for cooperation and victory.

Bibliography

Primary Source

Great Britain, Historical Manuscripts Commission. The Manuscripts of His Grace the Duke of Marlborough. London, 1881.

Secondary Sources

Burton, Ivor F. The Captain-General: The Career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, from 1702–1711. London, 1968.

Chandler, David. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough. New York, 1976.

——. Marlborough as Military Commander. London, 1979.

Churchill, Winston S. Marlborough: His Life and Times. 6 vols. New York, 1933–1938.

Green, David Brontë. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. London, 1967.

Thomson, George Malcolm. The First Churchill: The Life of John, 1st Duke of Marlborough. London, 1979.

—KARL W. SCHWEIZER