MARLBOROPOH, DUKE OF. 



MARLBOHOUQH, DUKE OF. 



108 



UM fafan of UM naptrar, lannd that prince for the *afety of hU 

 dissolution to th grand alliance itoelf. The** 

 of hie military 

 for the Mfety 

 upon bb own 



the bold design of marching into Oermnny at the head 

 He formed a junction on the Danube with the 

 g Gallo- Bavarian line* at Donauwerth ; 



fifm iNMd stariboroogh to attempt Uve iMstentrok* o 

 mar. Early h ft* campaign o/ W4, fUr providing! 

 of tit* KHkeriaod., b* secretly conceived and executed i 



If P*J**IUISJM ** wafjiniar xi*a*tir-* ***>* ISMJ iiu-ce> 



Anally, in eoncsrt with the Imperial commander Prince Eugene of 

 Savoy, kindred spirit, attacked UM en. my on the 18th of August 

 1704, at aod near UM Tillage of Blenheim on the Danube, with rach 

 kill aod impetuosity as to inflict on tl.em a total defeat In this 

 memorable battU, tb French and Bavarians, who were commanded 

 by UM elector in person an.) Marshals Tallard and Martin, lost above 

 MLOOO men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, Marshsl Tallard hfanself 

 belag among UM latter. Bat th* moral and political effects of the 

 victory wr* yt natter : it dimmed the luitre which the succetse* of 

 Look XIV. had shod upon the French arms, and destroyed the charm 

 of their Invincibility; it delivered tho empire; and it hud Bavaria 

 prostrate before the allies. For this great exploit Marlborough was 

 rewarded with the conveyance to himself and his heirs of the crown 

 lands at Woodstock, on which it was also resolved to erect for him a 

 palace at UM royal cost. This noble design to perpetuate the memory 

 of hit tstikat was ultimately realised, under the direction of th* 

 architect Vaabrugb, in the majrstic though cumbrous pile which still 

 lan the Utle of the castle of Blenheim : but the public enthusiasm 

 which had dictated to splendid a monument was stifled in faction, and 

 the completion of the work i* indebted more to the care of his high- 

 spirited widow, than to the (rood faith of th* crown or tho munificence 

 of UM nation. The gratitude of the Imperial house for the preserva- 

 tion of to capital and dominion* waa neither lest loud nor more 

 durable. The territory of Mindelheim, with the title of prince of the 

 Holy Roman empire, was conferred upon the victor of Blenheim ; but 

 though the premature death of his only son left him without heirs 

 male, UM dignity was nut allowed to descend in the female line ; and 

 when UM lands of Mindelheim were included in the districts restored 

 to Bavaria at the peace, the Imperial court had the meanness to 

 withhold anr compensation from it* deliverer. 



Th* march into Germany bad liberated Marlborough from the para- 

 lysing control of the Dutch field deputies and the wretched intrigues 

 of their officers. But his return to the Netherlands subjected him 

 again to the tame impediments and annoyances; and in the campaign 

 of 1708, though be skilfully forced the French lines between Namur 

 and Antwerp, he was once more restrained from striking any decisive 

 blow upon UM enemy. But in the following year (1706), happily for 

 his wishes, UM great effort* of th* French in the Low Countries under 

 Vnitroy enabled him to tempt them to an encounter ; and iu the great 

 haul* of lUmiliet he gained a second victory, so complete that the 

 enemy, with a loss of 1 3,000 men, eighty standards, ud all their cannon, 

 war* compelled to evacuate th* nhole of Spanish Flanders. Brussels, 

 (j beat, Antwerp, aod Oudenarde opened their gates to the conqueror, 

 and UM strong fortresses of Ottcnd, Menin, Kuderrnondc, and Ath 

 war* reduced by regular sieges. 



Through UM apathy of the Dutch these successes were followed, in 

 TOT, by a year of inaction ; but in the summer of 1708 an attempt 

 of UM enemy to recover possession of Spanish Flanders brought on a 

 gtnwal >ngacmwnt it Oudenarde, which terminated in the utter rout 

 of UM French under the Duke* of Burgundy and Vend&me, with a 

 IOM of 14,000 men. The forcing of the pas-age of the Schelde and 

 reduction of the great fortms of U.lo, a place of 6r*t-rate strength, 

 and defended by a gam-on of 15,000 men under Boufflers, were the 

 chief fruit* of this victory. Th* following year (1709) was distin- 

 by tho sauguinsry combat of Malplaquct, the most dubious 



redaction of 



-/i ** icauifc uruuucra ni 



tag*, equivalent to UM (rightful carnage by which it was pu 

 Th. at campaign (of 171W oiMncd with another lucccfsful 

 of UM Mny s Tin*, by Marlborough, which was followed , , 

 - Tt Dooair, Bethunc, and other posts. VUUrs employed 

 i aod winter In constructing a .erics of strong lines on the 

 i froutier*. to cover the interior of France again.t the further 

 of UM victorious allies; and to confident was he in the 



-'P? ??-?* &f^ moA * tkmt he P nl y ^outcA of 

 having "at last brought Marlborough to bis ne plus ultra." Ths 

 fatflily of this vai.nt wat disgracefully exposed, and never did th. 



f b ,-oUUe. 

 , br a sud.1,,1 sad 



wiU> mor pl"dour than 



c " 1 i* i n : " wwu hi. 



sad bis ecergiw were crippled by the malignant 



. 



IUM. t/UMtb though ga.aMding salsgonirt nsar 

 UM SMg. o( that strong fortns*. and effected it* 

 aaWvsoMot- under the eye. of UM saparlor French 





 history than to UM biography of 



Uo the 6th of August 

 vra, he burst through the 

 Boucbain, formed 

 capture his hut 

 superior French army. 



court of Queen Anne, 

 _ . long rather to general 

 illustrious leader who was their 



victim. But they were fomented in his domestic circle ; and his im- 

 perious wife, if she had assisted his rise, was also the real instrument of 

 bis fall So romantic was the friendship which the queen had cherished 

 for her, that utterly impatient of the etiquette and restraints of a 

 court, and under the assumed name of lira. Morley, laying aside every 

 .li-tinction of her rank, she corresponded in nil tho freedom and 

 affectionate intimacy of an equal, with the duchess as " her dear 

 Mrs. Freeman." If the duchess hail been contented to use her in- 

 fluence with moderation, tli* easy nature of the queen might never 

 have felt the yoke. But Anne was sincerely attached to Tory prin- 

 ciples, the duchess was a violent politician, and notwithstanding her 

 husband's Tory connections and prepossessions, she had become as 

 warmly devoted to the Whig as the queen to the opposite (arty. As 

 lung as William III. lived, an aversion which they shared to that 

 prince and his government, united the two ladies in a baud of political 

 sympathy more powerful than their own differences of opinion. But 

 when bis death relieved them from an object of common dislike and 

 apprehension, Anne gnve way to her Tory predilections ; the duchess 

 ardently advocated the rival cause; and so arrogantly and iuteuipe- 

 rately were her tyrannical injunctions enforced, that they ceaued not 

 until the weak queen bad been compelled to surround herself with 

 the leaders of a party whom she detested. But the queeu had 

 much of the cunning of weak minds, and she secretly contrived 

 measures with a new female favourite, Mrs. (afterwards Lady) 

 Masham, who had for some time been intriguing with Harloy earl of 

 Oxford ; and at length she openly avowed her complete alienation 

 from her former friend ; the intriguer Barley, the most perfidious of 

 political adventurers, found it cany to increase the feud ; and the 

 machinations cfthe bedchamber-woman, whom he made his instrument, 

 were sufficient to change the political aspect of Europe. 



The hatred of the queen for the duchess was soon unjustly and 

 ungratefully extended to the man who had achieved the principal 

 glories of her reign, and whose great merits were innocent of personal 

 offence. The abject entreaties to which Marlborough descended, in 

 vainly imploring the queen to spare his duchess the mollification of 

 a dismissal from her place in the royal household, present perhaps the 

 most humiliating scene of his life. The next blow struck by his 

 enemies was his own removal from command ; and this measure was 

 envenomed by their malignity with a charge of peculation, which 

 really appears to have been unfounded. Before the storm thus raised 

 against him Marlborough withdrew to the Continent, where he remained 

 until junt previous to the death of Queen Anne, George I., immedi- 

 ately on his accession, restored him to 1m military offices of captain- 

 general and master of the ordnance ; and in the undisturbed enjoyment 

 of these dignities he passed the eight remaining years of hid life. In 

 this interval two paralytic strokes shook his strength, but without at 

 all seriously impairing his faculties; and the line which Johnson 

 in.-erted in the ' Vanity of Human Wishes,' 



" From Xarlborough'i eyes the streams of dotage flow," 



wai at least a poetical exaggeration ; for he continued to attend hi* 

 parliamentary and official duties until a few mouths before his death, 

 which occurred when he was in the full possession of his senses, and 

 in the seventy-second year of his age, on tho 16th of June 1722. On 

 the death of his son, which happened during the duke's lifetime, the 

 reversion to the ducal title and estate of Blenheim had been m ttl, .1 

 on bis daughters and their heirs male; and the eldest, who thus 

 succeeded her father, having died leaving no son, the family honours 

 descended through her next sister, the lady of Charles Spencer, earl 

 of Sunderland, to the house which still inherits them, and which iu 

 our own age has assumed the name of ChurchilL 



In estimating the character of Marlborough, under its twofold aspect 

 of political and military greatness, it will readily b concluded that he 

 was the most distinguished personage of hi* country and timca. As 

 a statesman, he was unrivalled in personal address nu<l diplomatic 

 skill, in the arts of persuasion, and in the powers of combination and 

 arrangement Ho was the life and foul of the grand alliance which 

 arrested the ambitious career of Louis XIV. and preserved the liberties 

 )f Europe ; his influence pervaded every continental court ; and by 

 us energetic hand was set in motion every spring of that vast con- 

 Vderacy which centred its only real point of confidence iu his spirit. 

 One of his bitterest enemies and ablest contemporaries, Boliugbroke, 

 vat not ashamed to acknowledge, after tho grave had closed over 

 lim, that he was the greatest minister that this couutry had ever 

 



At a general, it baa not been the fate of Marlborough to be numbered 

 with tlio few, such at Maurice of Nassau, Qustavus Adolphus, or 

 Frederick of Prussia, whoso genius has stamped its impress upon the 

 vsrfsre of their times, and wade a distinct epoch in military science. 

 :ie left the art, which he practised with unrivalled ability, in the Home 

 state in which he had found it ; nor is there a single change or improve* 

 ment in strategy attributed to his master-mind. Hut it' this absence 

 of inventive power may seem to detract from his claim to the very 

 lighest order of military merit, it must not the less be reuiem 

 >hat he was beyond comparison tho most accomplished coniinniukr of 

 lis warlike age. It was au age of formal tactics and deliberate sieges; 

 vbich had produced Vauban and Coehorn, raised tho art of fortifying 

 'or the time to an apparent perfection, and exaggerated the importance 



