

The Embassy of Everaard van U'ccde 51 



role in the Revolution of 1688, one cannot, unfortunately, overlook 

 his avarice, treachery, inconsistency, and lack of moral sense. 



A figure quite as unscrupulous and far more base than the 

 designing Sunderland, whom James had raised to a place of honor 

 was Churchill. 229 He had risen from obscurity to eminence. At 

 the age of thirty-seven years, he was a major general, a peer of 

 Scotland, and commander of the Life Guards. 230 Certainly, he 

 had James to thank for these favors. But his ambition was as 

 inordinate as Sunderland's. Dykvelt had come to England with 

 special orders to communicate with him. 231 It was a dexterous 

 stroke of William. At the time, Churchill was holding no military 

 post. The likelihood was that he would be quite receptive to 

 any advances from the Prince of Orange. In this, the Prince 

 and Dykvelt were not mistaken. Churchill's letter to the Prince 

 of May 17, 1687, 232 is treasonable in its contents. It bears a sort 

 of grim humor when one contemplates his character and his 

 treachery to the King. He says with justice, to be sure, that he 

 "cannot live the life of a saint." But he assures the Prince that 

 he sets all things at naught "in comparison to the being true to 

 my religion," and that he is resolved "if there be ever occasion 

 for it, to shew the resolution of a martyr." In the light of the 

 conditions in England at the time and James's extreme determina- 

 tion to give the Catholics their political freedom, the assurance of 

 Churchill that the King may command him in all things but this 

 (his religion) has but one interpretation, — that Churchill was 

 pledging his support to the Prince against his own King. His 

 insistence that in all other things the King might command him 

 is undoubtedly a protection against himself, but it is a feeble one. 



A far more cunning trick of Churchill's was his use of the 

 Princess Anne's name. The relationship that existed between 

 Anne and Lady Churchill is too well known to need elaboration 



229 For a good life of Churchill, read Wolseley, General Viscount, The Life of 

 John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, (to the accession of Queen Anne), 2 vols., 

 London, 1894. 



230 De Grovestins, Guillaume III et Louis XIV, vol. v, p. 356. 



231 Wolseley, The Life of John Churchill, vol. i, p. 382. 



232 Dalrymple, Letter of Lord Churchill to the Prince of Orange, May 17, 1687. 



135 



