John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
Marlborough won four great battles in ten years and was dismissed for corruption by a queen who had been his wife's closest friend. He rose at the Restoration court as a page, and made his early career partly through his sister, who was the Duke of York's mistress. He abandoned James II for William of Orange in 1688 at the point when that decision settled the outcome, which secured his future and permanently coloured his reputation. The War of the Spanish Succession made him. As captain-general of the allied armies he marched the English and Dutch forces from the Low Countries to the Danube in 1704 - a movement of some two hundred and fifty miles, concealed from the enemy and supplied at every stage - and destroyed a French army at Blenheim with Prince Eugene of Savoy. It was the first serious French defeat in a generation and it ended any prospect of Louis XIV dominating Europe. Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet followed, the last so costly that it damaged the political case for continuing. His wife Sarah was the intimate friend and confidante of Queen Anne, and the friendship was the family's real security until it broke down completely. In 1711 a Tory ministry that wanted peace accused him of taking commissions on bread contracts and dismissed him from all offices. He went abroad, returned at Anne's death, and had a stroke that ended his career. Blenheim Palace was built for him by a grateful nation, and his direct descendant Winston was born there - which is the reason a search of this corpus for Churchill finds the wrong man.
- Lived: 1650 CE – 1722 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: military
