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English-Speaking Peoples (7): Queen Anne and Marlborough
History of the English-Speaking Peoples, Volume 3, Book 7
On Fridays starting September 30th, Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn and radio host Hugh Hewitt are discussing Churchill’s History of the English-Speaking Peoples in the Hillsdale Dialogues segment of the Hugh Hewitt Show.
Following each discussion, the Churchill Project will offer companion pieces highlighting important episodes and themes in the book covered. Readers will note that our writers focus on aspects of the books which our discussants may not. Such is the depth of Churchill’s History. Every reader may take what they prize most from this vast mine of political wisdom and understanding.
Page references (parentheses) are to Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, vol. 3, The Age of Revolution (New York: Dodd Mead, 1957).
William, Mary and Anne
England as Churchill knew it was established through the events in Book 7: the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and expulsion of the last Catholic monarch, James II. Later, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14) solidified England’s world power. But the deposed James’s flight to France initiated wars that “gripped Europe for 25 years” (6).
James was succeeded by his daughter, Mary II. She was persuaded to rule as Queen regnant alongside her protestant husband, William of Orange, by John Churchill, later First Duke of Marlborough, and his wife Sarah. Sir Winston writes of William: “[I]t almost seemed that a being had been created for the sole purpose of resisting the domination of France and her ‘Great King’” (4). Mary’s younger sister, Queen Anne, acceded to the throne after William’s death in 1702. Like her brother, she witnessed John Churchill’s greatest victories.
Churchill wrote his life of Marlborough in the 1930s, just before he began the English-Speaking Peoples. It is not surprising that he is the central and most significant character of this book. Marlborough’s tasks were formidable. He was asked to reconstitute the English Army in anticipation of wars with mighty, Catholic France. One war lasted nine years, another ten. Like the Second World War of Churchill’s time, the strife saw many fronts.
King William went to fight in Ireland, where King James had raised a Catholic army; Marlborough traveled to Flanders. England was at first unable to meet both threats adequately, and William also faced political strife at home. The Whig party, given the fruits of the Glorious Revolution, believed it should be directing affairs. Fearing this might lead to another republic, William entrusted the government to statesmen of the “middle view” (10).
Tide of war
William prevailed in Ireland, but at first “no independent scope” was given to Marlborough (12). Churchill explains that the British peoples’ view of Marlborough varied greatly over his lifetime. Disappointed with his assignment, Marlborough turned to politics, building a close relationship with Princess Anne, next in line for the throne. This offended Mary, and the interplay between them would for a time determine the “destinies of England” (14).
According to Churchill, the Commons unwisely chose to disarm a great portion of the nation’s military. The political sphere was like a “continuous see-saw” (24). The Whigs supported the war effort; then the Tories would regain power as the public grew war-weary. The tide of war is a theme Churchill reflects upon throughout his book. He condemns Tory efforts for disarmament, seeing in them the same foolishness as the Appeasement years he himself had experienced:
In the name of peace, economy, and isolation they prepared the ground for a far more terrible renewal of the war. Their action has been largely intimated in our own times. No closer parallel exists in history than that presented by the Tory conduct in the years 1696 to 1699 with their similar conduct in the years 1932 to 1937 (24).
Their opposition to disarmament restored Marlborough’s and William’s friendship, and Marlborough regained his position in the army and Privy Council. This was fortunate, because war soon loomed again. The dying Charles II of Spain left his throne to Louis XIV’s grandson, who became Philip V. But the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI of Austria, also claimed the throne. This assured war between France and Spain and the alliance of Austria, Savoy and the Dutch Republic. Playing her traditional role of opposing the strongest powers on the continent, England supported the Allies.
Marlborough ascendant
Churchill regards appeasement over the Spanish throne as he did the attempts to mollify Hitler in the 1930s: “We have seen in our own times similar frightful losses, accepted by the English people because their mood was for the moment pacific and their interests diverted from European affairs” (32). By 1701, war was again inevitable. William died, Anne succeeded her father, Marlborough was left to defend the realm.
Marlborough had to balance the diverse interests of the Allies with ever-shifting political sentiments at home. The Allied performance in war was mixed. Marlborough triumphed at Nimwegen, then lost at Cadiz, but defended the actions of his officers. He also had to influence the anti-war Tory party, whose “Occasional Conformity Bill” sought to disqualify non-Anglicans from office. (It failed, but was revived and passed in 1711.) Then the Tories were disgruntled when France laid hold of southern Germany and the Upper Rhine in 1703.
Marlborough was intent on attacking Bavaria and defending Vienna from the French. With Margrave Louis of Baden and Prince Eugene of Savoy, he marched from the North Sea to the Danube. “The annals of the British Army,” Churchill writes, “contain no more heroic episode” (50). The Allies won a decisive a victory at the village of Blenheim in 1704. Following the successive captures of Landau, Treves, and Trarbach, the French Army was almost destroyed. The same month as Blenheim, England, now also a sea power, seized control of Gibraltar. Marlborough had become the foremost soldier of the age. Queen Anne conferred upon him a dukedom, the royal manor of Woodstock, and promises of a palace, which would be called Blenheim.
Reversal and more success
On his march home in 1705 Marlborough took Liège and contemplated marching on Paris. But it soon became obvious that the Dutch opposed against any fighting away from their borders. Nevertheless, the next year, Marlborough set off for Northern Italy, hoping to link up with Eugene. Forestalled by French troops on the Rhine and in Italy, he sent reinforcements to Eugene and resigned himself to a campaign among the fortresses of the Brabant.
Fortune smiled again. At Ramillies Marlborough’s cavalry broke through the center of the French line, allowing the infantry to advance. The cavalry swept behind the French forces, routing them from the field. Victory at Ramillies won Belgium back for the Dutch. Moreover, Prince Eugene pushed the French out of northern Italy. Around the same time, Charles, the Allied claimant for the Spanish throne, set out for Barcelona, which eventually surrendered to the Allies. Madrid soon fell as well. “The Year of Victory,” as Churchill calls 1706, “close[d] on this” (63).
There were two reactions to the “Year of Victory.” First, the Dutch, always mindful of their vulnerability to the French armies, disliked what they considered the small scope of the Allied campaign. Second, England’s Whigs wished to reassert their political influence. Their eye fell across Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, who had married Marlborough’s daughter. He became a Secretary of State. Although Queen Anne was doubtful about Sunderland’s appointment to her cabinet, Marlborough’s support after Ramillies convinced her to accept him. (Sunderland is an ancestor both of Winston Churchill and Princess Diana and, through her, of Prince William.)
The Marlboroughs and Queen Anne
Sarah Churchill’s hitherto close relationship with Queen Anne then began to suffer. Sarah had introduced her to a relative, Abigail Hill, who became her constant companion. Abigail’s cousin, the Tory leader Robert Harley, formed a government of Tories and moderate Whigs. Marlborough disapproved, and stalemate in the Low Countries during 1707 did nothing to improve his standing. Spain and the Rhine fell again to the French, and an attack on Toulon failed with the loss of three English ships. Marlborough refused to sit in Cabinet with Harley and returned to his home. Eventually, Queen Anne unwillingly received Harley’s resignation, but her relationship with Marlborough was almost entirely broken.
Churchill writes that 1708 was the “only time in the Duke’s career he bent and bowed under the convergent strains at home and in the field” (72). But the faithful Prince Eugene came to his aid, and together they triumphed at the Battle of Oudenarde. The fall of Bruges and Ghent followed, and the capture of Minorca gave England a secure position in the Mediterranean.
The question of the Spanish succession had not yet been settled. Although Louis XIV was willing to withdraw his troops from Spain, he would not abandon his grandson Philip V. Marlborough wanted to settle with France and Spain separately, but both Tories and the Whigs demanded peace. The British were victorious at Malplaquet, but at a great price. Churchill writes: “The event presented itself to all men as a terrible judgment upon the failure of the peace negotiations…. [I]ndeed Malplaquet, the largest and bloodiest battle of the 18th century, was surpassed only by Napoleon’s barren victory at Borodino a hundred years later” (83).
Marlborough in eclipse
By 1710, Marlborough was “so disheartened by the animosities crowding upon him at home that he would henceforward only wage war as if it were a game of chess” (84). The results were at first inconclusive. Meanwhile, Harley was regaining influence with Queen Anne. The Tories wished to end the war, but knew that France was not completely subdued. They still relied on Marlborough, because the Dutch and Prussians refused to serve any other general. While Harley secretly sought peace, Queen Anne appointed him Lord Treasurer, in effect prime minister.
In 1711 the French expected Marlborough to attack the fortresses south of Arras. Suddenly they found themselves marching east, where they met the Prussians, who had gone behind their lines across the River Sensee. Encircling Bouchain, the Allied forces were themselves encircled—“a siege within a siege,” Churchill calls it (90). The Allies then captured Quesnoy. Marlbrough had now led the Allied armies for a decade. “During all that period,” Churchill writes, “he never fought a battle he did not win or besieged a town he did not take. Nothing like this exists in the annals of war” (90-91).
Harley’s peace negotiations were now made public. The Tories believed that if they could force Marlborough to support their efforts, they could overcome opposition in the House of Lords. Marlborough refused. As punishment, the Tories accused him of embezzling money to pay foreign contingents—which he’d been authorized to do. He was prosecuted and dismissed from his offices. Thus, England withdrew from the Grand Alliance, and each country was forced to seek a separate peace with France. “Upon a dark day,” British forces left the Allied camps (93). The French soon recovered Douai, Quesnoy, and Bouchain.
The Peace of Utrecht
The Peace of Utrecht was a series of separate treaties each Allied country made with France and Spain. France recognized the Protestant succession in England, expelled James II, destroyed its fortifications at Dunkirk, and ceded various territories. From Spain, the English took control of Minorca and Gibraltar. France and Spain renounced the unity of their crowns. Lastly, the fortresses in the Low Countries were split among the Dutch, Prussians, and French, while the Rhine was left unclaimed.
As Queen Anne approached her death, the country was on the verge of another civil war. No one knew whom she desired to succeed her. But the Whigs, supported by Marlborough, were intent on a Hanoverian succession. The claims of Anne’s half-brother James Francis Edward Stuart were ignored.
Eventually the Tories agreed to recognize George I, Elector of Hanover, as king. Marlborough, unwilling to endure Tory harassment, had been living in Holland and Germany, and was absent from her final moments. Churchill is certain that the era of “Good Queen Anne” was “one of the greatest reigns in English history…rendered glorious by Marlborough’s victories and guidance” (100).
Retrospective
A remark Churchill makes in the middle of Book 7 succinctly conveys his overall lesson. In the War of Spanish Succession, he writes,
…a curious rhythm now recurs. When the fortunes of the Allies fell, all obeyed Marlborough and looked to him to find the path to safety; but when he produced, infallibly, as it seemed, a new victorious scene, the bonds of fear and necessity were relaxed and he was again hampered and controlled” (54).
Churchill’s love and respect for Marlborough is unmistakable throughout his retelling. He looked to his ancestor as a great example of statesmanship in his own life. The rhythms he notices was not only present in Marlborough’s wars, but those Churchill himself fought. He draws parallels between himself and Marlborough, not simply because they were related. They both dealt with a nation ungrateful for its leaders and yet in need of their capabilities to defend it. The legend on both their coats of arms reads, Fiel pero Desdichado. Both were faithful, but at times unfortunate.
The author
Anna Swartz is a senior at Hillsdale College studying English and Latin. She is a Winston Churchill Fellow and is interested in teaching upper school humanities upon graduation. She is a member of Pi Beta Phi and serves on the Outreach Board for Catholic Society.