Churchill’s Marlborough II: An Extraordinary Man For His Time

In 2024, I read the first volume of Winston Churchill’s biography of his ancestor, Lord Marlborough. In the second volume, Marlborough finally comes into his own. After successfully navigating the perilous political waters of the reigns of Charles II and William III (including The Glorious Revolution), Marlborough and his wife, Sarah, are now in the innermost circle of the newly crowned Queen Anne.

It falls on Marlborough to continue the Grand Alliance that is opposed to France’s Louis XIV. He assumes command of the allied forces of Holland, the Austrian/Hungarian Empire, and various German states, and he hopes to strike a mortal blow against Louis XIV and Spain. Unfortunately, he is hobbled by the timidity of his Dutch allies, who would prefer to maintain a merely defensive position.

In 1702, Marlborough is finally allowed to go on the offensive, and with hardly any resistance from the French he quickly takes several fortresses and towns along the Meuse river. He is so successful that he becomes a hero back in England, and Queen Anne wants to make him a Duke. However, the complicated politics and machinations of the Whig and Tory factions in Parliament prevent her from bestowing the necessary funds to run an estate, so he is denied that honor.

Meanwhile, there are all kinds of smaller alliances being made and broken throughout Europe, depending on which side seemed to be ascendant. In the North, King Charles XII of Sweden was wreaking havoc in Scandinavia and the Baltic States. The Hungarians were rebelling against the Austrian Holy Roman Emperor. And the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus, in northern Italy was contemplating switching allegiance from France to the Maritime Powers (England and the Dutch). Once again, Churchill employs his wicked wit when describing the duke:

Victor Amadeus was a proud and courageous turncoat. While weaving his webs of intrigue in the interests of his small country he never forgot that he was a soldier with a sword at his side. Indeed, he was capable of fighting with the utmost personal valour in the forefront of a battle which his policy required him to lose.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough II (Kindle Locations 2842-2844). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

The reluctance of the Dutch to engage the French armies eventually led to a stalemate at Antwerp. Marlborough kept trying to convince them to let him take that strategic city, but they hemmed and hawed until, in the fall of 1703, it was too late. Meanwhile, the French were able to meet up with the traitorous Elector of Bavaria, and pose a real threat to the Empire:

A Franco-Bavarian army far stronger than any force of which the Empire could dispose stood in the centre of Germany with power to move in any direction.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough II (Kindle Locations 3402-3403). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

By the winter of 1703/04 things were at a low ebb for Marlborough. The reluctance of the Dutch to approve a decisive military campaign against the French meant that a golden opportunity to end Louis IV’s globalist ambitions was lost. The hapless Empire of the Hapsburgs was under threat of collapsing from threats within and without. In England, the Tories and the Whigs decided to pin the blame for the lack of progress on both Marlborough and his closest ally, the royal treasurer Godolphin. But even worse than the political and military headwinds was the fact that Marlborough’s beloved Sarah was convinced that he was carrying on an affair. Ever since the death of their only son, and the onset of menopause, Sarah had had serious physical and emotional issues, and no amount of assurances from John could convince Sarah of his fidelity.

We’re 40% of the way through this volume of Churchill’s biography of Marlborough, and it’s been pretty slow going. Marlborough has been prevented from wielding his military genius by Dutch obstinance, and things have been in pretty much in stasis. In the spring of 1704, that is about to change, and things start to heat up. Marlborough finally arranges it so that he can command forces down to the Danube and relieve the pressure on the Empire.

At this point, Marlborough forces the issue, and wins an overwhelming battle against the French: the Battle of Blenheim. If most Americans are like me, even though they studied European history, they are probably not aware of the  world-shaking consequences of this battle. I’ll let Churchill explain, in his inimitable style:

Blenheim is immortal as a battle not only because of the extraordinary severity of the fighting of all the troops on the field all day long, and the overwhelming character of the victory, but because it changed the political axis of the world. This only gradually became apparent. Even a month after all the facts were known, measured, and discounted, scarcely any one understood what transformations had been wrought. Until that August day the statesmen of every country must contemplate the prospect of the Elector of Bavaria supplanting the House of Hapsburg in the Imperial crown, with Munich instead of Vienna as the capital of Central Europe. Yet this Prince, should he become so bright a luminary, would be himself a planet only in the system of the Sun King. Spain and Italy would have their appointed orbits around the parent of light. The vast new regions opening beyond the oceans to the consciousness of man, those distant constellations, would shine with brightening gleams upon a French Monarchy of Europe and a dominant Gallican Church. The sullen and awkward Dutch and boorish English would perforce conform to the august design. Their recalcitrancy would be but the measure of their sufferings.

All this glittering fabric fell with a crash. From the moment when Louis XIV realized, as he was the first to realize, the new values and proportions which had been established on August 13, he decided to have done with war. Although long years of bloodshed lay before him, his object henceforward was only to find a convenient and dignified exit from the arena in which he had so long stalked triumphant. His ambition was no longer to gain a glorious dominion, but only to preserve the usurpations which he regarded as his lawful rights, and in the end this again was to shrink to no more than a desperate resolve to preserve the bedrock of France.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough II (Kindle Locations 7471-7484). Delphi Classics.

After his victory at Blenheim, Churchill was one of the most popular men in Europe (except in France, of course). Even though he was a “commoner”, he was feted and honored by all the courts of the Grand Alliance.

Alas, in the next military campaign season, the Dutch soon returned to their overly-cautious ways and prevented Marlborough from winning a decisive victory over the French in Flanders. According to Churchill, the Dutch general Slangenberg actively sabotaged Marlborough’s efforts to put a final nail in the coffin of Louis XIV’s continental ambitions. So, the second volume of Churchill’s biography of his ancestor ends on a bit of a down note. However, the reader is assured that Marlborough will return to wreak havoc on the French on the field of Ramillies.

One thing that comes through clearly in this volume is Marlborough’s absolute devotion to his wife, Sarah. Churchill quotes many personal letters he sent to her while he was on the continent campaigning. In every single one there is an overriding concern for Sarah’s wellbeing, and an intense desire to retire and spend the rest of his life with her in peace and quiet.

Finally, I end with a quote that illustrates Churchill’s sardonic sense of humor. Early on, he explains England’s reasons for allying with the Dutch and entering into war against France:

The causes of England’s quarrel were set forth in a proclamation which is a model of forceful historical compression. Its conclusion should be noted.

We henceforth strictly forbid the holding of any correspondence or communication with France or Spain or their subjects. But because there are remaining in our Kingdoms many of the subjects of France and Spain, We do declare our Royal intention to be, that all the subjects of France and Spain, who shall demean themselves dutifully towards us, shall be safe in their persons and estates.

This passage will jar the modern mind. We see how strong was the structure of Christendom in these times and with what restraints even warring nations acted. Of course, nowadays, with the many improvements that have been made in international morals and behaviour, all enemy subjects, even those whose countries were only technically involved, even those who had lived all their lives in England, and the English women who had married them, would, as in every other state based on an educated democracy, be treated within twenty-four hours as malignant foes, flung into internment camps, and their private property stolen to assist the expenses of the war. In the twentieth century mankind has shaken itself free from all those illogical, old-world prejudices, and achieved the highest efficiency of brutal, ruthless war.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough II (Kindle Locations 1457-1468). Delphi Classics.

Churchill’s Marlborough I: A Vindication

Book number 18 of 2024!

The older I get, the more I like nonfiction, especially history. One of my favorite historians is Winston Churchill. The first thing I read of his was A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, which I enjoyed so much that I next read his The Second World War, then The World Crisis – his account of the First World War. It’s fascinating to read history that is written by a major actor in it. It doesn’t hurt that Churchill is a terrific writer with a wicked sense of humor. I’m not the only one to recognize his talent – he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.

Marlborough I is the first of a four-volume biography of Churchill’s ancestor, John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough (1650 – 1722). Apparently, a big reason for his taking on this huge project was to “clear the name” of Marlborough. The historian Thomas Babington Macaulay had written a biography of Marlborough that was very popular and extremely critical of the British soldier and statesman. Macauley doesn’t escape Winston Churchill’s withering contempt:

It is beyond our hopes to overtake Lord Macaulay. The grandeur and sweep of his story-telling style carries him swiftly along, and with every generation he enters new fields. We can only hope that Truth will follow swiftly enough to fasten the label “Liar” to his genteel coat-tails.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough I (Kindle Locations 2140-2142). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

The first third of Marlborough I is taken up with a lot of conjecture, because there simply isn’t much documentation of John Churchill’s early life. He is appointed as a page to one of King Charles II’s dukes, and he quickly makes a name for himself as a dashing young man who has integrity, relatively speaking, given the time of Charles II’s Bacchanalian court. He gets involved with Barbara Villiers, a mistress of the king, but once he meets Sarah Jennings, he woos her until they marry, and he remained devoted to her the rest of his life.

Marlborough manages to navigate the perilous political waters that were roiling England at this time. Here is where my ignorance of British history handicaps my full enjoyment of the book. Churchill assumes the reader is familiar with the various administrations, party politics, and machinations of the different factions that were competing during Charles II’s and James II’s reigns. I’m not, so I found myself turning to Wikipedia a lot. Who was Danby? Shrewsbury? Halifax? The Jacobites? I didn’t know, and Churchill doesn’t provide much background to these major figures and movements in British history. However, I still enjoyed learning about them on my own.

John Churchill slowly makes a name for himself as a military leader and strategist. He and Sarah become close friends with Princess Anne, who is the sister of Mary, the wife of William of Orange. When William becomes King of England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, John Churchill finds favor with him after successfully tamping down James’ potential rebellion in Ireland. Unfortunately, William doesn’t think much of English generals, and he refuses to give Churchill any real command of forces out of fear that his Dutch generals might suffer in comparison.

William doesn’t really care that much about the British; his main concern is to build an alliance to challenge France’s Louis XIV. Winston Churchill is definitely NOT a fan of the Sun King:

During the whole of his life Louis XIV was the curse and pest of Europe. No worse enemy of human freedom has ever appeared in the trappings of polite civilization. Insatiable appetite, cold, calculating ruthlessness, monumental conceit, presented themselves armed with fire and sword. The veneer of culture and good manners, of brilliant ceremonies and elaborate etiquette, only adds a heightening effect to the villainy of his life’s story.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough I (Kindle Locations 3806-3809). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

It should be noted that Churchill wrote those words in 1933, before Hitler tried to conquer Europe himself!

As William continued to award honors and positions to his fellow Dutchmen, alienating his British subjects, John Churchill (Lord Marlborough) began publicly speaking out against him. Meanwhile, Queen Mary insisted that her sister, Princess Anne, get rid of Sarah as her lady-in-waiting. Anne refused. In early 1692, things came to a head, and William stripped Marlborough of all his offices and commands.

Marlborough remained in limbo while William authorized a disastrous invasion of France at Brest. The British forces sustained very heavy losses. Later historians alleged that Marlborough and other British nobles deliberately delayed the preparation of the invasion forces, allowing Louis XIV time to prepare for it. Winston Churchill makes a strong case that the documents this accusation is based upon were forged or made up.

Meanwhile, William’s wife, Queen Mary, died of smallpox, making Princess Anne the next in line for the British throne. Suddenly, she became popular in high society again, and William and Marlborough made an uneasy reconciliation. James and his Jacobite supporters tried to assassinate William, but the plot was discovered and the men involved arrested and imprisoned. One of them, John Fenwick, accused Marlborough and a few men who were close advisors of William of being involved in the plot, but no one believed him. Marlborough’s reputation and honor survived.

William III and Louis XIV made peace, and several other treaties gave Europe a ten-year breather. As Churchill notes, in 1699,

William was now at the height of his glory. He seemed about to outshine even the Sun King himself. In the east, in the north, and now in the south and west of Europe he seemed about to lay, after generations of religious, dynastic, and territorial wars, the foundations of a lasting peace for the whole world.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough I (Kindle Locations 7294-7296). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

Now that William and Marlborough were reconciled, William appointed Marlborough the governor of Princess Anne’s son, the very young Duke of Gloucester (keeping up with all these noble personages is something!). By 1698, William was relying on Marlborough’s counsel more and more; When William traveled to Holland, Marlborough was one of nine lords given sovereign power. However, he had to perform a tricky balancing act: remaining loyal to his Tory party which was in conflict with William’s aims in Europe, while serving as a member of the royal court.

In 1700, the eleven-year-old Gloucester died of smallpox, throwing the British line of succession into confusion. Parliament passed the Act of Settlement, which made the House of Hanover the royal house. Meanwhile, Charles II of Spain died, and Louis XIV installed his grandson as king of Spain, destroying the balance of power. William realized he didn’t have many years left to rule, and he made Marlborough Commander-In-Chief of English forces in Holland. As Churchill observed, “The formation of the Grand Alliance had begun.”

Marlborough, authorized by William, concluded treaties with the states that remained opposed to France. In September, 1701, James II died, and Louis announced that he recognized James’ son as the rightful king of England. This arrogant declaration galvanized parliament, and William soon had all the financial support he needed to oppose Louis. In 1702, William’s horse threw him, he broke his collarbone, and not long after died. All the pieces were in place for the War of Spanish Succession – an even stronger France, with Spain on its side, was ready to overrun Holland. On Marlborough’s shoulders rested the job of leading the Alliance against an incredibly powerful foe.

That is where Marlborough I ends. A couple of final thoughts: first, an unexpected benefit of reading Winston Churchill is that the reader receives a course in English vocabulary. For example, how often do you see the word inexpugnable (it means impregnable)? That word, phlegmatic, obdurate, and puerilities all appear in the span of a few paragraphs.

Second, I have often wondered how Churchill seemed to instinctively comprehend – before anyone else – Hitler’s threat to European peace. After reading this first volume of his biography of Marlborough, it’s clear that Churchill’s understanding wasn’t instinctive but rather the result of his immense knowledge of history. He already knew how William III and Louis XIV had vied for supremacy in Europe at the turn of the eighteenth century, and how delicate the balance of power always is. He also recognized Britain’s inclination to turn inward as soon as peace is achieved:

The wars were over; their repressions were at an end. They rejoiced in peace and clamoured for freedom. The dangers were past; why should they ever return? Groaning under taxation, impatient of every restraint, the Commons plunged into a career of economy, disarmament, and constitutional assertiveness which was speedily followed by the greatest of the wars England had ever waged and the heaviest expenditure she had ever borne. This phase has often recurred in our history.

WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. Marlborough I (Kindle Locations 7301-7304). Delphi Classics. Kindle Edition.

As our current geopolitical situation heats up faster and faster, I wonder if there is anyone on the world’s stage with as much historical knowledge as Winston Churchill had in 1933. We certainly could use someone like him again.