Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/348

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Churchill

340

Churchill

without the brilliant genius which would make a charge of commonplace palpably absurd.

A list of the preferments of the duke and duchess has been frequently reprinted (see Hearne's Collections by Doble, i. 102). The duke had 7,000l. as plenipotentiary, 10,000l. as general of the English forces, 3,000l. as master of the ordnance, 2,000l. as colonel of the guards, 10,000l. from the States-General, 5,000l. pension, 1,825l. for travelling, and 1 ,000l. for a table, or in all 39,825l. He received also 15,000l. as percentage, which, according to him, was spent on secret service, and handsome presents from foreign powers. The duchess had 3,000l. as groom of the stole, and 1,500l. for each of her three offices as ranger of Windsor Park, mistress of the robes, and keeper of the privy purse, or in all 7,500l. The united sums thus amount to 62,325l. The duchess reckons her own offices as worth only 5,600l. a year. She says that the rangership was worth only the 'milk of a few cows and a little firing.' She ultimately received also the nine years' pension at 2,000l. a year. Besides this, she had after the death of the queen-dowager (1705) a lease, 'for fifty years at first,' of the ground called the 'Friery' in St. James's Park, on which Marlborough House was built in 1709 (see Wentworth Papers, 89, 98), at a cost, she says, of from 40,000l. to 50,000l. {Conduct, 291-7). She gives careful details of her economical management of the office of the robes, and declares that she would never sell offices.

On the death in 1733 of Henrietta (duchess of Marlborough in succession to the first duke), the title was assumed by her nephew, Charles Spencer [q. v.], fifth earl of Sunderland, and son of the fourth earl of Sunderland, by Anne, second daughter of the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.

[The best life of Marlborough is still the tiresome but exhaustive Memoirs by Archdeacon Coxe (3 vols. 1818–10), with many original papers from the family records at Blenheim. Previous lives were: Lives of the two illustrious generals, John, Duke of Marlborough, and Francis Eugene, Prince of Savoy, 1713; Annals of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, and Prince Eugene, 1714; life by Thomas Lediard, in 3 vols. 1736 (some original matter); History of Marlborough by the author of the History of Prince Eugene, three editions, 1741, 1742, and 1755 (of no value); Histoire de John Churchill, duc de Marlborough, 1808, 3 vols, readable and impartial, by Madgett, who had been desired by Napoleon to translate Ledyard, and the Abbé Dutens, who seems (see Dutens in Biographie Universelle) to have done most of the work. The only considerable life since Coxe is the loose narrative by Alison [see under Alison, Sir Archibald], second and fullest edition in 1862. Short summaries have been recently published by Mrs. Creighton in Historical Biographies, 1879, and by G. Saintsbury in English Worthies Series, 1885. The military history is given from the French side by Histoire Militaire du regne de Louis le Grand, by the Marquis de Quincy, 7 vols. 1726. In 1725 appeared Batailles gagnées par le . . . Prince Eugène, 2 vols, folio, the first consisting of Explications Historiques by J. Dumont (Baron de Carelscroom); the second a volume of handsome, but not very useful engravings, of plans of battles, sieges, &c., by Hochtenberg. In 1729 was published the Histoire Militaire de Prince Eugène, du Prince et Duc de Marlborough et du Prince de Nassau-Frise, in 2 vols, folio. The first reprints Dumont's acoounts from the 'Batailles gagnées,' with an introduction on Eugene's earlier history by J. Rousset; the second contains a supplement by Rousset, with the plates from the 'Batailles gagnées.' the supplement being also issued separately to form a second volume to the 'Batailles gagnées.' A translation of Dumont forms the fourth part, and a translation of Rousset's supplement the fifth part, of Des grossen Feldherns Eugenii . . . Heldenthaten, Nürnberg, 1738. In 1747 Rousset published a third volume of the Histoire Militaire, with fresh documents and discussions. The Military History of Eugene and Marlborough (by John Campbell, 1708–1776 [q. v.]), with copper-plates engraved by Claude du Bosc, 2 vols. fol. 1736, is mainly a reproduction of Dumont and Bousset (1725–9). Recent publications of original documents are the Mémoires Militaires relatifs à la Succession d'Espagne, 1835, &c. in the Documents Inédits, edited by General Pelet; Letters and Despatches of Marlborough (1702–12), edited by Sir George Murray, from original letter-books discovered at Blenheim, 5 vols. 1845; and the Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen v. Savoyen, in coaurse of publication by the Austrian government, which gives the fullest accounts of the campaign of Blenheim (series i. vol. vi.), and of the campaign of Oudenarde and Lille (series ii. vol. i.) Among contemporary books may be noticed: The Conduct of the Duke of Marlborough during the present War, with original Papers, 1712 (by Francis Hall, chaplain to the duke, afterwards bishop of Chichester); Campaigns of King William and the Duke of Marlborough, by Brigadier-general Richard Kane (2nd edition, 1747); Compleat History of the late War in the Netherlands (1713), by Thomas Brodrick; and A Compendious Journal of all the Marches, Battles, Sieges, &c ... by John Millner, sergeant in the Royal Regiment of Foot of Ireland (1736). The Memoirs of the Marquis de Feuquière (d. 1711) (3rd edition, 1736) contain some interesting criticisms by a contemporary military observer. See also Memoirs of Villars (in Petitot Collection, vol. lxix.) for campaigns of 1705, 1709, 1710, 1711; and of Berwick (Petitot, vol. lxv. lxvi) for campaigns of 1702, 1708, 17O8 (especially), and 1709. The

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.