Churchill, who had advanced rapidly upon London, for the purpose of gathering round him his own corps, exhibited no disinclination to take his seat in the convention parliament. To his honour be it recorded, however, that he was one of those who at first stood out against a change of dynasty. The utmost for which he voted was a regency. Nevertheless, when the tide of party gained strength, he saw good reason for refusing his voice to such as would have excluded William and Mary from the throne. Like many other half Jacobites, he absented himself from the house on the day when the eventful question was agitated, and thus negatively sanctioned a measure which he professed positively to condemn. To sum up all, he took office as a privy counsellor and lord of the bedchamber under king William, and was created, two days prior to the coronation, earl of Marlborough.

About this period died sir Winston Churchill, the eccentric, but high-principled, father of lord Marlborough. His eldest son being long ago deceased, John, earl of Marlborough, was now his heir; yet the old cavalier-by what motive instigated we pretend not to determine-left his estate, such as it was, to his youngest son Charles. The consequence was, that lord Marlborough fixed his principal residence at Sandridge, of which a moiety had come to him in right of his wife, and of which, as the countess chanced to be extremely partial to it, he purchased the fee-simple. He built upon it a mansion, to which he gave the name of Holywell, and which is described, by the local writers of the day, as a structure of great magnificence and elegance.

For some time after the revolution, Marlborough abstained from taking any other share in public business than by assisting largely in procuring for the princess Anne her separate establishment of 50,000l. a year. His conduct in this transaction served by no means to conciliate the favour of his new master. Yet his talents were of an order not to be left unemployed; and hence we find him sent abroad, in the summer of 1689, to command the English forces employed against the French in Holland. As he acted under the orders of the prince of Waldeck, Marlborough found but one opportunity of turning his consummate military knowledge to account. Of that, however, he readily availed himself; and commanding at the post of Walcourt, he held it in defiance of a great superiority of numbers, not more to the dismay of his enemies than the astonishment of his general. He received for his gallantry and skill the warmest thanks of the prince*, and was honoured by a letter of strong commendation from William himself.

We have not hesitated to speak openly of Marl

*It was on this occasion that the prince of Waldeck said of him, that he had in one battle exhibited a greater proficiency in his art than many generals in a series of campaigns.

borough's treachery to king James; it is a matter of great satisfaction that we are enabled to place in opposition to such conduct one striking instance of good feeling and good sense. When William proceeded to Ireland, to contend there for the crown which he had seized, Marlborough refused to accompany him, on the ground that he could not in honour draw his sword against his former master and the benefactor of his youth. Though far from oppressed with an excess of feeling, William admitted the excuse; and hence Marlborough was in no way accessary to the defeat of the Boyne. But James had no sooner returned to France than he freely offered his services; and while William found it necessary to proceed in person to the continent, Marlborough took the command of the troops employed in Ireland. He rendered in this capacity important service to the cause. Besides reducing the strong holds of Cork and Kinsale, he checked numerous incursions of the insurgents, and contrived, as much by the mildness and equity of his proceedings in the cabinet, as by his conduct in the field, to introduce order into the provinces. These victories, both military and civil, were all obtained in the short space of a few months; for we find him early in the spring of 1690 again in London, and occupied in business of a very different nature.

William the Third had not long occupied the British throne, ere the feeling of enthusiasm with which his arrival had been hailed began to subside. Cold and forbidding in his outward deportment, as well as avaricious and selfish in his disposition, he soon lost the esteem of a people who are, perhaps, not less susceptible of first impressions than any that have ever existed; whilst his undisguised partiality towards his Dutch followers gradually converted alienation into disgust. The strong desire, likewise, expressed by him to throw open all places to dissenters, gave as much umbrage to the tories as James's countenance of popery had given offence to the whigs; and the indifference with which he squandered English treasure in the furtherance of plans no way conducive to English prosperity, produced discontent in every circle. Men began to doubt whether the expulsion of the old dynasty was likely to prove, in the end, beneficial to the country. Doubts, in most instances, were followed by the conviction that a great error had been committed; and many an eye, which had witnessed with delight the departure of James, was now turned with anxiety to St. Germain's. The stanch friends of the exiled family were not slow in availing themselves of the opportunity thus afforded. Negotiations were secretly opened with numerous influential houses relative to the recall of James, and a counter-revolution appeared to be on the eve of its accomplishment.

It is one of the most extraordinary facts in history, that the earl of Marlborough, who had taken a part so active in the expulsion of James, should

have been among the first to enter with his deposed king into a clandestine correspondence. That he was influenced in his conduct by any sense of honest compunction, we are not prepared to say. On the contrary, the whole tenor of his letters goes far to prove, that now, as formerly, a regard to self, and to self alone, chiefly swayed him; for while we find him anxiously securing his own pardon in the event of the king's return, and dealing largely in general professions of devotion and loyalty, he is uniformly seen to start off so soon as some definite proposition is advanced, having a tendency to lead to the accomplishment of the proposed design. Thus, when it was urged upon him that he could not do the cause more important service than by bringing over the English troops then in Flanders, "he excused himself under pretence that there was some mistake in the message; that it would ruin all, to make the troops come over in parcels; that his business was to gain an absolute power over them, and then to do the business all at once." ""* "So that," to use the words of our author, "they (Marlborough and Godolphin) were to be pardoned and in security in case the king returned, and yet to suffer nothing in the interim, nor to give any other proofs of their sincerity than vain words and empty promises, which, under pretence of being suspected, or doing greater service afterwards, there was never found a suitable time to put the least of them in execution." It must be confessed, that conduct such as this furnishes the enemies of Marlborough's reputation with too much ground of censure, and leads almost unavoidably to the conclusion, that he who had betrayed one master in his hour of greatest need, was ready, should circumstances require it, to betray another.

The correspondence with James, though frequent and protracted, was carried on with so much caution, that it escaped either the notice or the regard of William. That prince, passing over to the continent in the spring of 1691, carried Marlborough along with him, and sent him to arrange the plan of the campaign, while he himself repaired to Holland, in order to attend the congress of the Hague. It was now that Marlborough exhibited, in a more striking light than ever, that acuteness of perception and readiness of calculation which form prominent features in the character of a great commander. Having received information that two magazines were formed, one of firewood, the other of dry forage, on a particular line of road, he pronounced that Mons, the barrier of Flanders, would be attacked, and entreated the deputies of the states-general to look to its defence. The deputies derided the warning; pronounced the siege of Mons at that season impracticable; and persisted in opinion that the enemy's designs were against Charleroi. While therefore they turned their attention to cover Char

*Life of James II.

leroi, Mons was left to the fate which had all along been prepared for it. On the 4th of March the place was invested, and, in spite of many attempts to bring relief, all of them made when too late, it fell into the hands of the French.

During the remainder of this campaign, Marlborough conducted himself so as to command the admiration of all ranks, both among his friends and his enemies; but as the situations which he filled were necessarily subordinate, it seems needless to swell our present narrative, by recording movements for which he was in no degree responsible.

Early in October, the troops on both sides having retired into quarters, Marlborough departed for England, where, on the 19th, he landed, in full favour with the king and the people. No great while elapsed, however, ere the sun of his political heavens became obscured. He had, on a previous occasion, zealously espoused the cause of the princess Anne, in a dispute which she maintained with the king and queen relative to money transactions; and he now entered, with equal zeal, into fresh cabals, originating in the somewhat ungracious exclusion of prince George from service on board the fleet. It does not exactly appear how far Marlborough expressed himself in disrespectful language of his sovereign; but that some such act of imprudence had been committed, was proved by his abrupt dismissal, on the 10th of January, 1692, from the king's service, and the order conveyed to him not again to show himself at St. James's.

Irritated at the treatment bestowed upon her favourite, the princess withdrew, in a great measure, from all intercourse with the court, and gathered round her as many persons of rank as preferred the countenance of a lady strongly suspected of Jacobitism to the cold civilities of a foreign usurper. The circumstance was not in any respect favourable to Marlborough's prospects; it served but to encourage in their attacks the many enemies whom his superior good fortune had created; and their machinations, aided by other causes, led, before long, to a still more unsatisfactory result. Lady Marlborough having ventured to appear at the drawing-room as a personal attendant on the princess, received a peremptory command to quit the palace, whilst her mistress, perceiving in the measure a studied insult to herself, gave up her apartments also, and retired to Berkeley House. All London was in amazement; but if the feeling had been excited before, it rose to a still higher pitch in consequence of an event which almost immediately ensued. On the 8th of May Lord Marlborough was arrested on a charge of high treason, and, together with the earls of Huntingdon and Scarsdale, and Dr. Pratt, bishop of Rochester, committed to the Tower.

It so happened that at this particular juncture a French fleet, filled with troops for the invasion of England, had put to sea. As a measure of pre

caution, the lords Griffin, Middleton, and Dunmore, sir John Fenwick, colonels Slingsby and Sackville, with many other avowed partisans of the exiled family, were seized; and men, naturally connecting one circumstance with another, came to the conclusion that a similar motive had guided the public authorities in the treatment of Marlborough. But it soon appeared that not Marlborough only, but the nobles and prelate committed along with him, stood on ground much more delicate than that occupied by their companions in disgrace. There was one Young, a man of infamous character, who lay in Newgate in default of the payment of a fine, and exercised his ingenuity in forging the handwriting of men of rank and influence. This miscreant, aided by an associate named Stephen Blackhead, found means to draw up a declaration in favour of James II., and to affix to it the signatures of Marlborough, Scarsdale, Dr. Pratt, Lord Cornbury, and sir Basil Firebrass. Having secreted this deed in the bishop's palace at Bromley, Young communicated its existence to the secretary of state; by whose order a search was instituted, and the document found. The arrest of the supposed traitors immediately followed, though the ground of accusation was for a brief space kept secret.

There is good reason to believe that had it been possible to substantiate the charge of treason against the parties now accused, small regret would have been experienced by king William, to whom the friend of the princess Anne, and the most distinguished soldier of his day, had become an object of strong personal antipathy. No sooner, however, was Young confronted with the bishop of Rochester than his forgery became apparent, and all except Marlborough were released. Why he should have been detained after his supposed associates were acquitted, has never been satisfactorily explained, unless the conjecture which refers the circumstance to the naturally suspicious temper of the king be admitted as correct; but of the fact itself there is no doubt. Marlborough remained a prisoner in the Tower till the 15th of June, the last day of the term. He was then admitted to bail in the court of king's bench, the marquis of Halifax, the earl of Shrewsbury, the earl of Cornby, and Mr. Boyle being his sureties; and on the 23d of the same month his name, with the names of the lords who supported him, were struck off from the list of privy counsellors.

From this date up to the close of 1694 Marlborough continued in disgrace, without making any effort to recover the favour of his sovereign. The death of the queen, however, which occurred on the 28th of December, having led to a reconciliation between the king and the princess of Denmark, Marlborough took advantage of the circumstance, and tendered his services in any capacity in which they might be deemed advantageous to his country. Though supported by the influence both of lord Shrewsbury and admiral Russell, this

offer was rejected; nor, when all the facts of the matter are taken into consideration, can we experience surprise that the case should have been so. It was very generally understood that Marlborough still kept up a correspondence with the court of St. Germain's. He had been just accused, likewise, of taking part in Fenwick's plot for the assassination of king William, and though acquitted by the house of peers, suspicion was not obliterated from the naturally suspicious mind of the king. Hence every effort on the part of Marlborough's friends to bring his merits conspicuously before the sovereign were coldly met or peremptorily rejected; nor was it till the exigencies of the times in some degree forced the arrangement upon him, that William would consent to honour the earl with his confidence.

By the act of settlement, the crown, though conferred conjointly upon William and Mary, and secured to either in the event of the demise of one, was destined, failing issue from these parties, to pass to the princess of Denmark. Mary having died childless, the princess Anne was now next in succession; and her son, the duke of Gloucester, a boy of very promising disposition, was treated as heir presumptive to the throne. It became a subject of deep interest to procure for him a guardian, qualified both by natural and acquired talents to form his mind aright; and the favour of the nation, not less than the partiality of the princess mother, pointed out Marlborough as of all others the best fitted for such a trust. there been any rival to Marlborough* in public opinion, it is extremely probable that he would have been preferred; but there was none. The tories were now all-powerful; and William, conscious that opposition to their wishes would be fruitless, yielded with a good grace. Associating with Marlborough, as superintendent of the prince's education, bishop Burnet, he committed to the former his important charge, addressing to him a compliment which reflected equal honour upon the one party as upon the other: "My lord," said the king, "make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all I wish to see him."

Had

Marlborough entered upon his new and important office in June 1698, having been previously restored to all his honours, civil as well as military. He discharged its duties during two years with acknowledged zeal and judgment; but at the end of that time the heir of the British crown died, to the inexpressible grief both of the king and the people. It does not appear that the calamity produced any injurious effect either upon the future prospects or immediate situation of Marlborough. Restored to the full favour of the reigning monarch, and strong in the undisguised partiality of the heir, Marlborough had every right to anticipate a career of honour and

* William offered the appointment to Shrewsbury, who declined it; and would have bestowed it upon Rochester, but for his dislike of that nobleman's temper and party prejudices.

prosperity; and the state of Europe was such as to open out to him a field, of all others, the most favourable to his genius and talent. We accordingly find him in the summer of 1701, after marrying his daughters Henrietta and Anne to the sons of two old friends, Godolphin and Sunderland, taking a leading part in transactions, of the circumstances which led to which it will be necessary to give a brief account.

The peace of Ryswick, to which both Louis and William had somewhat reluctantly consented,— the one in consequence of the views which he entertained upon the Spanish crown, the other because of his frequent reverses, had been pronounced by all intelligent statesmen to rest upon no solid basis. The death of Charles, which took place November 1st, 1700, proved the perfect justice of this suspicion, by overthrowing at once the famous partition treaties, in the management of which William had assumed to himself extraordinary credit. So far from the Spanish sovereignty devolving upon the archduke Charles, it was found that the king had made a new will, by which the duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin, was nominated to succeed; whilst in event of his demise, or accession to the throne of France, the duke de Berri was appointed to the inheritance. Though the partition treaty had given great umbrage both to the house of commons and the people of England, the prospect of a virtual union between France and Spain was not such as either were disposed to regard with approbation. The very parliament which had impeached the king's ministers, and seemed at one moment well inclined to dethrone the king himself, suddenly changed their language: they voted liberal supplies to meet any contingencies which the state of the times might bring forth, and conveyed to the throne solemn assurances of support in all such alliances as might be contracted for the double purpose of maintaining the peace of Europe, and reducing the exorbitant power of France. It is somewhat remarkable, that Marlborough, who had entered a violent protest against the acquittal of Portland, Oxford, Halifax, and Turner, was one of the most forward members of the house of peers in advocating this line of policy. Whether he was actuated on the present occasion by views of personal ambition, or whether he really looked to the honour of his country, we pretend not to say; but certain it is, that he entered with extraordinary readiness into the king's wishes, which by his powerful influence he tended largely to promote. The consequence was, that William forgave, or affected to forgive, the vigorous opposition which he had met when striving to keep up his Dutch guards, and to resume the Irish grants; and taking Marlborough completely into favour, appointed him to command the forces in the Netherlands, and to negotiate the renewal of a grand alliance with the foreign powers. All this, it will be observed, took place subsequently

to the arrangement of the succession by the exclusion of the direct line in favour of the house of Hanover; an important measure, to which Anne was induced to give her consent, chiefly through the persuasions of lady Marlborough.

On the 1st of July, 1701, Marlborough embarked with the king at Margate, and on the 3d landed at the Hague. He was employed throughout the whole of the summer in conducting negotiations, to which prejudices the most extravagant, sometimes the most discordant, stood every where opposed. Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, and Muscovy, not less than England and the states-general, were all to be conciliated; and as the political views of these several powers were, generally speaking, in direct contradiction one to the other, the extreme delicacy of management requisite to unite them may be imagined. On the one hand the diplomatist was called upon to sooth and flatter the pride of the emperor; on the other, the vanity of the Swedish monarch, not less than the rapacity of his council, was to be gratified. With Prussia, again, he found himself involved in a labyrinth of subsidies, supplies, and acknowledgments, and the payment of an army scarcely to be trusted. Holland and England were, of course, mutually jealous of commercial advantages and maritime rights; while Denmark, smarting under the effects of her recent struggle with Sweden, seemed by no means willing to become a party to any arrangement in which her rival was included. Over all these difficulties, however, as well as over the caution of Muscovy, Marlborough, by discretion and coolness, eventually triumphed; and though the summer was wasted in discussions, the conduct of which enabled Louis to assume a very formidable attitude, the result was far more favourable than the most sanguine could have anticipated. It was arranged, that war should be declared against France that the three great powers, Germany, England, and Holland, should carry on that war to the utmost extent of their disposable means; and that an army should forthwith be assembled, the contracting parties furnishing contingents, Germany to the amount of 90,000, England of 40,000, and Holland of 10,000 men.

;

While these things were in progress on one side, the death of James II., and the acknowledgment by Louis of his son as king of England, furnished ample proof that the opposite parties were not unprepared for the issue. The effect of this measure in London was not, however, such as the French monarch would have desired. Party spirit, which had previously ran high, subsided as it were in a moment: an address of loyalty and devotion was voted to the king by both houses of parliament; and he was petitioned to insert a clause in the treaty of alliance, by which the great powers should engage themselves not to make peace till the title of William to the British crown had been admitted. At the same time orders were issued for the

capture of the Spanish galleons, expected at the customary season with treasure; and a partial change of ministry being effected, the hands of William, and his great supporters the whigs, were materially strengthened. It was now that an act of attainder was passed against the prince of Wales and his mother, which was followed by an act for the security of his majesty's person, and the succession to the crown in the protestant line. Next followed the bill of abjuration with all its mis-statements and absurdities; and the system, which it had required so many years to organise, became fully consolidated. The affixing of his signature to this bill, not by manuscript but by stamp, was the last act of royalty which William performed. He had returned to England late in September, whither, on the conclusion of the treaty, he was followed by Marlborough, and received a fatal injury by the falling of his horse, when hunting in the park of Hampton Court. He survived the accident only long enough to confirm the measure which his parliament had adopted; and, on the 8th of March, 1702, expired, in the 52d year of his age, and 14th of his reign.

and a

It is stated by Lediard, that William with his dying breath recommended Marlborough to the notice of his successor, as the fittest person in her dominions "to head her armies and direct her counsels." How far this account is to be received as accurate, we take it not upon us to say; but it is certain that Marlborough was almost immediately invested with the order of the bath, and promoted to the rank of captain-general of her majesty's forces. The office of ranger of Windsor Park was at the same time bestowed upon the countess ; his two daughters were advanced to the dignity of ladies of the bedchamber; pension of 2000l. a year, granted by the late king, was, without solicitation, continued to Lord Sunderland. A ministry, likewise, was formed, which, including almost every personal friend of Marlborough, could not but consider itself bound to support him in all his undertakings; while, to sum up all, he was deputed to Holland as ambassador extraordinary, for the purpose of assuring the allied powers that to the treaties entered into by the deceased monarch his successor would rigidly adhere. Yet, it was not without considerable.exertion of influence that he succeeded in obtaining a prompt declaration of war. Even in the privy-council he was from time to time rigorously opposed; and the opposition led to a breach, deeply lamented, in the friendship which had so long subsisted between Marlborough and Rochester. Nevertheless, the eventful step was finally taken; war was formally declared; and Marlborough, on the 15th of May, 1702, set sail from Margate, to assume the command of the British contingent, and of such forces as might by other states be intrusted to his guidance.

It had been early attempted by Marlborough to obtain for the prince of Denmark the chief com

mand of the troops about to be employed in the approaching contest. He had laboured to accomplish this object while ambassador at the Hague; and now, on his return thither in the capacity of commander of the British forces, he renewed the subject. But the inexperience of the prince, united to other and not less cogent reasons, induced the allies to lend to the proposition a deaf ear. After taking into consideration the respective claims of the prince of Nassau-Saarbruck, and the earl of Athlone,-the former a prince of the empire, the latter a native of Holland, and a general of long standing and some reputation,-it was finally determined that the important office should be intrusted to Marlborough himself. He was accordingly invested with the dignity and nominal powers of generalissimo of the allied forces, and a yearly salary of £10,000. was granted to defray the expenses incident to the situation.

It was the beginning of June ere Marlborough landed at the Hague, and hostilities had actually commenced six weeks previously. For this, indeed, ample preparations had been made in the course of the winter, by the drawing together of various corps, at every point where danger seemed to threaten; nor were these backward in coming into play, as soon as the state of the weather would permit. On the side of the allies, one army consisting exclusively of Germans occupied, under prince Lewis of Baden, a position on the Upper Rhine; a second composed of Prussians, Palatines, Dutch, and some English, made ready, under the orders of the prince of Saarbruck, to invest Kayserwerth; a third, commanded by Athlone, after reinforcing the garrison of Maestricht, took post at Cranenberg, not far from Cleves; while a fourth corps of 10,000 men collected at the mouth of the Scheldt, under Cohorn the celebrated engineer, for the double purpose of securing that frontier and threatening the district of Bruges. On the part of the enemy, again, preparations neither less judicious nor less gigantic were made. One army, at the head of which were the count de la Motte and the marquis of Bedmar, covered the western frontier of the Netherlands, and opposed itself to Cohorn. A second, not inferior in point of strength, and of which the command was held by marshal Tallard, made ready, from the Upper Rhine, to interrupt the siege of Kayserwerth; while it was from the operations of a third, at once the most numerous and the best equipped, that both parties anticipated the principal results. Occupying the line of the Meuse, and holding all the fortresses in the bishopric of Liege, that corps seemed to possess both an excellent base on which to lean, and every facility of acting; and the command being intrusted to Marshal Boufflers, an officer noted for his hardihood and valour, the most extravagant expectations were formed as to the conquests which it would immediately achieve.

The first blow in this memorable war was struck by the prince of Saarbruck, at the sugges