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Monday, April 4, 2011

Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough


"Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land"-Proverbs 31:23


"She (that is, Sarah Churchill) on her part was equally attached to him (her husband, the Duke of Marlborough), but much as she strove to add to his power and to forward his plans, her haughty and violent temper was the main cause of the unmerited disgrace into which he fell with his royal mistress (Queen Anne I), who owed so much to him personally, and whose reign he did so much to render a brilliant and successful one."--pg. 44, The Cornet of Horse by G. A. Henty.


Sarah Churchill--as Henty said--made her husband's career and broke it. It was her influence with Queen Anne I (Sarah was Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen) that appointed the Duke of Marlborough as British commander in Flanders during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was a great general, and it was no fault of his that his family lost their government positions.



The Marlborough family. From left to right: the Duke, Elizabeth, Mary, the Duchess, Henrietta, Anne (their daughter, not the queen), and John


(picture from www.britishbattles.com)

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