CHAPTER II.

Conduct of Lord Sunderland—Influence of the Duchess understood at foreign courts—Anecdote of Charles the Third of Spain.—1703–4.

Lord Sunderland, at this time on terms of confidence with his mother-in-law, the Duchess of Marlborough, was one of the most active agents of the Whig party, in making overtures to Marlborough and Godolphin. Of powerful talents, although taunted by Swift with the imputation “of knowing a book better by the back than by the face,”[25]and of multiplying them on his book-shelves without caring to read them, Sunderland, or his politics, were never wholly acceptable to Marlborough. Yet the Earl, though a violent party politician, knew how, in circumstancessufficiently trying, to prove his sincerity, and evince a real elevation of mind, by refusing from the Queen, upon his office of secretary being taken from him, a pension by way of compensation. His celebrated answer, “that if he could not have the honour to serve his country, he would not plunder it,”[26]must have startled less scrupulous politicians; and, possibly, it might even sound strangely in our own days of boasted disinterestedness and enlightenment.

The Duke of Marlborough, in reply to advances made in behalf of the Whig party by Lord Sunderland, made this memorable answer: “that he hoped always to continue in the humour that he was then in, that is, to be governed by neither party, but to do what he should think best for England, by which he should disoblige both parties.”[27]Thus ended, for the present, the negociation on the part of the Whigs.

The cabinet, therefore, continued to be composed of mixed ingredients. The Duke persevered steadily in that course which he deemed necessary, as far as foreign policy was concerned, to crush the reviving influence of the Pretender, whose subsequent attempts to recover the throne of his ancestors he plainly foresaw. From this conviction, he regarded a continued goodunderstanding with the Dutch to be of paramount importance.[28]

“May God,” he says, writing to the Duchess, “preserve me and my dearest love from seeing this come to pass;” alluding to a reconciliation with the French, and consequently with the Pretender and his family, through the medium of that nation; “but if we quarrel with the Dutch,” he adds, “I fear it may happen.”[29]

The influence of the Duchess of Marlborough at the court of Anne was now well understood by the continental powers of Europe. When England, this year, received a foreign potentate as her guest, the Duchess was, of all her subjects, the object peculiarly selected for distinction. Charles, the second son of the Emperor of Austria, having recently been proclaimed, at Vienna, King of Spain, in opposition to the Duke of Anjou, completed his visits to sundry courts in Germany, whither he had repaired to seek a wife, by paying his respects to Anne of England. He landed in this country about Christmas, and immediately despatched one of his attendants, Count Coloredo, to Windsor, to inform the Queen of his arrival. He soon, conducted by Marlborough, followedhis messenger to Windsor, where Anne received her royal ally with great courtesy, and entertained him with a truly royal magnificence. All ranks of people crowded to see the young monarch dine with the Queen in public, and his deportment and appearance were greatly admired by the multitude, more especially by the fair sex, whose national beauty was, on the other hand, highly extolled by Charles. The Duchess of Marlborough, though no longer young, still graced the court which she controlled. It was her office to hold the basin of water after dinner to the Queen, for the royal hands to be dipped, after the ancient fashion of the laver and ewer. Charles took the basin from the fair Duchess’s hand, and, with the gallantry of a young and well-bred man, held it to the Queen; and in returning it to the Duchess, he drew from his own finger a valuable ring, and placed it on that of the stately Sarah. On taking leave of the Queen, he received, as might be expected, assurances of favour and support—a promise that was not “made to the ear, and broken to the hope,” but was fulfilled by supplies of troops and money afterwards in Spain. During the time of the King’s visit, open house was kept by the Queen for his reception and that of his retinue; and the nobility were not deficient intheir wonted hospitality, and the Duke of Marlborough was twice honoured by receiving the King as his guest.[30]

It was two years after this visit that Charles sent a letter of thanks for the assistance granted him by the Queen against the French, which he addressed to the Duchess of Marlborough, as “the person most agreeable to her Majesty.” The King might have added, as a partisan most favourable to the aid afforded him, and most inimical to the sway of France, which, by the will of the late King of Spain, Charles the Second, had been unjustly extended over the Spanish monarchy.

Hitherto the achievements of Marlborough, however admirable, and compassed as they were with the loss of health and the destruction of happiness, had not contributed to effect the main objects of the war, in the manner which he had anticipated. At home, the Tory, or, as some historians of the day term it, the French faction, disseminated the notion that Marlborough and his party were squandering away the resources of the kingdom, in fruitless attempts against the wealthy and powerful sovereign of France. To combat his political foes, an union was effected between Lord Somers and Mr. Harley; andGodolphin, by the directions of Marlborough, endeavoured by every possible means to strengthen the moderate party in both Houses of Parliament.[31]The Duchess attacked the Queen with never-ending counsels and arguments; but all these exertions would possibly have been fruitless, had it not pleased Providence to bless the arms of Marlborough with signal success during the ensuing year.

“The Whigs,” as the Duchess observed, “did indeed begin to be favoured, and with good reason.[32]For when they saw that the Duke of Marlborough prosecuted the common cause against the French with so much diligence and sincerity, they forgot their resentments for the partiality previously shown by him to their opponents, and extolled his feats with as much fervour as the Tories decried his efforts.”

Marlborough, in the spring of the year 1704, embarked for Holland, with designs kept rigidly secret, embracing schemes of a greater magnitude than he had hitherto hoped to execute, and sanguine anticipations which were more than realised. The Duchess was left to combat at home the prepossessions of her royal mistress, as well as to repel the frequent projects which Marlborough, dispirited and home-sick, formedof retiring. He had, after the last campaign, quitted the continent with that intention; but, on reflection, a sincere and earnest desire to complete the great work which he had begun, and, possibly, the counsels of Godolphin and of the Duchess, who were both averse from his relinquishing his command, had prevailed over feelings of disappointment and chagrin.

Whilst affairs were in this position, the Tories made one expiring effort for power, by reviving the bill against occasional conformity. Until this time, the hopes of this ever vigorous and sanguine party had been maintained by the preference of the sovereign, plainly manifested in the creation of four Tory peers, after the last prorogation of Parliament.[33]This had proved the more alarming, since it had been hinted that an exercise of prerogative in the Upper House was the only means of subverting the opposition of the Lords to the bill.

The discovery of what was called the Scotch plot, however, checked materially the triumph of those who secretly favoured the claims of the Pretender. This famous conspiracy, which had for its object the interests of the Jacobite faction, produced a more effectual change in the sentiments of the Queen, and made her more distrustfulof her favourite partisans, than all the services of Marlborough, or the laborious and steady duty of Godolphin, or even the able arguments of the Duchess, could possibly have rendered her. Yet, still Anne secretly favoured the high church party; and it was with reluctance that she abstained from giving to the last effort for passing the bill against occasional conformity, her decided countenance.

The measure was introduced by a manœuvre, and it was further designed to carry it by a stratagem. By the contrivance of Lord Nottingham, it was announced in the Gazette, without Lord Godolphin’s knowledge or concurrence.[34]“It was resolved,” says the Duchess, “to tack the occasional conformity bill to the money bill, a resolution which showed the spirit of the party in its true light.”[35]The Queen, notwithstanding that the Prince of Denmark had been prevailed upon not to vote on the question, still had her predilections in favour of the measure, greatly to the irritation of the proud spirit which could not overcome those deeply-seated notions.

“I must own to you,” observes Anne, writing to the Duchess, “that I never cared to mention anything on this subject to you, because I knew you would not be of my mind; but since you havegiven me this occasion, I can’t forbear saying, thatI see nothing like persecution in this bill.”

“I am in hopes,” she adds, “I shall have one look of you before you go to St. Albans, and therefore will say no more now, but will answer your letter more at large some other time; and only promise my dear Mrs. Freeman, faithfully, I will read thebookshe sent me, and never let difference of opinion hinder us from living together as we used to do. Nothing shall ever alter your poor, unfortunate, faithful Morley, who will live and die, with all truth and tenderness, yours.”[36]

There is every reason to suppose that the opinions of the Duchess upon the subject of nonconformity coincided with those of Bishop Burnet, who was the most energetic champion of the Whigs on this occasion. Dr. Burnet considered that measure as infringing on the principles of toleration which he upheld; he represented it as a design of the Jacobites, to raise such dissensions as might impede the progress of the war. He has declared, in a lively passage of his celebrated history, that it was his resolution never to be silent when the subject should be debated; “for I have looked,” he adds, “on liberty of conscience as one of the rights of human nature,antecedent to society, which no man can give up, because it was not in his own power: and our Saviour’s rule, of doing as we would be done by, seemed to be a very express decision to all men who would lay the matter home to their own conscience, and judge as they would willingly be judged by others.”[37]

It would be agreeable to conclude that the Duchess of Marlborough acted on principles as high as those which the bishop here maintains. But it must be allowed that her general conduct would not induce the supposition. The cherished satisfaction of triumphing over her political adversaries, and of exhibiting the Queen enchained under her influence, if not convinced by her arguments, must be regarded as the source of the steady warfare which she maintained against the predilections of her sovereign.

Anne wrote in a strain of humility, which proceeded from the politeness natural to her, and which impelled her to support the assumed character of an equal, even when the prejudices of the two friends came into collision, had ignited, and caused an explosion.

“I am sure,” she writes, “nobody shall endeavour more to promote it (union) than your poor, unfortunate, faithful Morley,who doth notat all doubt of your truth and sincerity to her, and hopesher not agreeing in everything you saywill not be imputed to want of value, esteem, or tender kindness for my dear Mrs. Freeman, it being impossible for anybody to be more sincerely another’s than I am yours.

“I am very sorry you should forbear writing upon the apprehension of your letters being troublesome,since you know very well they are not, nor ever can be so, but the contrary, to your poor, unfortunate, faithful Morley. Upon what my dear Mrs. Freeman says again concerning the address, I have looked it over again, and cannot for my life see one can put any other interpretation upon that wordpressures, than what I have done already. As to my saying the church was in some danger in the late reign, I cannot alter my opinion; for though there was no violent thing done, everybody that will speak impartially must own that everything was leaning towards the Whigs,and whenever that is, I shall think the church beginning to be in danger.”[38]

The bill was again, by a large majority, rejected, and the Queen and Prince George became, in consequence, extremely unpopular with the high church party, for the coolness with whichthey had abstained from using their influence on this second occasion.[39]

But the triumph of the Whig party was now fast approaching. Marlborough, after passing the winter in military preparations proportioned to the public danger, had, as we have seen, embarked for Holland; “but few,” says Cunningham, “perceived that England was about to unite her forces to those of Germany.”

The progress of the great general through the territories of Cologne to Colburg, where he left a camp; his march up the Rhine, on which he carried his sick and wearied in boats between the two armies, marching on either side of the “abounding river;” his encampment on a vast plain, beyond Andernach, and his rapid progress to the Danube, are events which demand almost a separate and distinct history, to relate them as they merit. It was in this campaign that the gallant Eugene passed high compliments on the spirit and deportment of the British army, and requested to serve under the illustrious Marlborough as a volunteer. It was here that the mutual partiality of these two brave men began, and that a friendship was contracted between them, which proved no less delightful to themselvesthan important to the interests of the war.

The march of the allied troops to Schellenberg, and the encampment around its church, on a hill, commanding a plain, bounded by the Danube, followed this memorable meeting. The battle of Blenheim, which annihilated the ascendency of France, was the glorious climax of a series of less important, yet brilliant engagements. It destroyed, at the same time, the influence of that party in our own country, who had prophesied, not many weeks before the important victory, that all would end fatally for Holland and for England. Sir Edward Seymour, the leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, inveighed against Marlborough, before the decisive action, and whilst he lay before Schellenberg, in the bitterest terms, and even threatened the Duke with a severe censure of Parliament for marching his army to the Danube.

Nor was the arrogant but able Seymour a solitary railer against the great deliverer of his country. There was a host of malcontents who accused Marlborough of exceeding his commission, and of consulting his private interests in the steps which he had taken; and a clamour was raised, that the British army was led away toslaughter, in order to serve the purposes of a single individual.

The Duchess, in her narrative, refers to the battle of Blenheim in one short paragraph only, and that in reference to its effect upon the state of politics in England.

“The church, in the meanwhile, it must be confessed,” she writes, “was in a deplorable condition,—the Earls of Rochester, Jersey, and Nottingham, and the Whigs, coming into favour.” Great were the exertions used to reanimate the party, and also to resume the great measure against non-conformists. “But it happened,” says the Duchess, “that my Lord Marlborough, in the summer before the Parliament met, gained the battle of Blenheim. This was an unfortunate accident; and, by the visible dissatisfaction of some people on the news of it, one would have imagined that, instead of beating the French, he had beat the church.”

It might be supposed that, from this cool and almost flippant mention of an event in which her warmest affections ought to have been interested, the Duchess was an indifferent witness of those stirring and important scenes in which John Duke of Marlborough played a conspicuous part, and in which all Europe, figuratively speaking, participated. But, whateverwere her failings, the unpardonable fault of not appreciatinghim; of not sharing in his lofty hopes nor suffering in his anxieties; of not prizing his safety, of not being elevated with an honest pride at his success,—so great a deficiency in all that is healthy in moral or intellectual condition, could not be imputed to this haughty and capricious, but not heartless, woman. Yet, notwithstanding this vindication of the Duchess’s character, she had parted from her husband (will it be believed?) in anger. Amid the dangers and difficulties to which Marlborough was exposed, he carried with him the remembrance of other annoyances, which, whilst it neither abated his ardour nor weakened his exertions for the great cause, added to the pressure of a mind overcharged, and of faculties overtasked, a sense of chagrin which must have aggravated every other care.

The stings which domestic quarrels always inflict, and which sometimes can never, by any gentle arts, be removed, were still poignant when the Duke quitted England for the Hague. Repentance in violent but generous tempers quickly succeeds the indulgence of the angry taunt, or bitter sarcasm; and when absence had cooled down those ebullitions of irritability, which wanted, perhaps, the accustomed object to vent themselves upon, the Duchess appears to have suffered herbetter feelings to prevail, and to have experienced sincere regret that she had parted unkindly, and perhaps for ever, from him whose life was now exposed to every possible risk, whilst she sat at home in safety. Her restless, but not callous mind began to be possessed with nobler resolutions than, as it seems from his reply, the Duke ever anticipated from his wife. Soon after his departure, she wrote to offer to join him, to share in the anxieties, and even in the dangers, to which he was exposed. To accede to the request was impracticable; but it gratified the warm and generous heart of Marlborough to know that the Duchess, of whose affection he seems never to have been fully assured, should wish to resign for him the attractions of ease and safety, and the luxuries of home. His letter to her, in reply to this offer, is too beautiful to be abridged.[40]

“Hague, April 24–May 5.

“Your letter of the 15th came to me but this minute. My Lord Treasurer’s letter, in which it was enclosed, by some mistake was sent to Amsterdam. I would not for anything in my power it had been lost; for it is so very kind, that I would in return lose a thousand lives, if I had them, to make you happy. Before I sat down towrite this letter, I took yours that you wrote at Harwich out of my strong box, and have burnt it; but, if you will give me leave, it will be a great pleasure to me to have it in my power to read this dear, dear letter often, and that it may be found in my strong box when I am dead. I do this minute love you better than I ever did in my life before. This letter of yours has made me so happy, that I do from my soul wish we could retire, and not be blamed. What you propose as to coming over, I should be extremely pleased with; for your letter has so transported me, that I think you would be happier in being here than where you are; although I should not be able to see you often. But you will see, by my last letter as well as this, that what you desire is impossible, for I am going up into Germany, where it would be impossible for you to follow me; but love me as you do now, and no hurt can follow me. You have by this kindness preserved my quiet, and I believe my life; for, till I had this letter, I have been very indifferent of what should become of myself. I have pressed this business of carrying an army into Germany, in order to leave a good name behind me, wishing for nothing else but good success. I shall now add that of having a long life, that I may be happy with you.”

Upon the entreaty being renewed in the summer, Marlborough again refused;[41]for he was at that time on his march to the Danube, and, in case of an unfortunate issue to his projects, he had no place, as he assured the Duchess, to which he could send her for safety.

“I take it extremely kind,” he writes, “that you persist in desiring to come to me; but I am sure, when you consider that three days hence will be a month, and that we shall be a fortnight longer before we shall get to the Danube, so that you could hardly get to me, and back again to Holland, before it would be time to return to England. Besides, my dear soul, how could I be at ease? for if we should not have good success, I could not put you in any place where you could be safe.”[42]

The courageous character of the Duchess was fully requisite to sustain her during the events of the ensuing months of this memorable summer. August drew on, and the crisis of the war approached. We know not how she was supported through anxieties multiplied by rumour, and embittered by the slanderous accusations of the envious; but the Duke her husband had one resource, which never failed—he trusted in Providence. Whilst weaker minds vainly confide in theirown strength, or in the effect of circumstances, which are as reeds driven to and fro by a mighty wind, the great Marlborough, humbling himself before his supreme Creator, had recourse to prayer. Previous to the engagement which crowned his fame, he received the holy sacrament, and “devoted himself to the Almighty Ruler, and Lord of Hosts,” whom it might please to sustain him in the hour of battle, or to receive him into everlasting peace if he fell.[43]There are those who will justly think that the pious ordinances of our religion were profaned by the cause of bloodshed; and that an all-merciful Father would look down with displeasure upon the deliberate destruction of thousands, even when projected with the purest and most patriotic motives. The better sense of our own peaceful times has brought us to a due conviction of the wickedness of all war not defensive: that in which Marlborough was engaged may, nevertheless, be considered to have borne that character.

When the great victory was won, Marlborough’s first thoughts were of the Queen, of the people, of his wife. After a battle which lasted five hours, having been himself sixteen hours on horseback, and whilst still in pursuit of theenemy, Marlborough tore a leaf from his pocket-book, and with a black-lead pencil wrote these hasty lines:

“August 13, 1704.

“I have not time to say more, but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know that her army has had a glorious victory. M. Tallard and the other generals are in my coach,[44]and I am following the rest. The bearer, my aide-de-camp, will give her an account of what has passed. I shall do it in a day or two by another more at large.

“Marlborough.”

The battle of Blenheim silenced everything but acclamations of joy and gratitude. The Duke, after various other successes, returned to England on the fourteenth of December, 1704, worn out with hardships, rather than elated with success. Throughout the whole of the campaign, his coolness had been combined with an ardent courage, which never lost sight, for an instant, of the interests of humanity, in so far as the great lessons of forbearance handed down to us can be united with the profession of arms. His modesty, as he returned, bringing with him as a prisonerthe famous Marshal Tallard, was no less remarkable. Abroad, he was treated as a prince, and he consented to wear the character for the benefit of that cause which he espoused, and for the honour of those allies whom he represented; but, on returning home, Marlborough became again the subject, the least obtrusive of men; and, “in point of courtesy,” on an equal footing with the lowest in England.[45]

This note was written on a slip of paper torn from a memorandum-book; it had probably been taken from some commissary’s bill, as it was written, along with the important intelligence, on a list of tavern expenses, and an entry of bread furnished to the troops. The precious despatch is preserved in the archives of Blenheim. Colonel Parker, who carried it to the Queen, requested, instead of the usual donation of five hundred pounds, to be honoured by the gift of her Majesty’s picture. The Queen granted the permission, and presented him with her miniature; and the gallant officer chose to be represented himself, by the pencil of Kneller, as wearing the miniature, with the despatch in his hand, and the battle in the back-ground.[46]

After innumerable honours paid to the victoriousgeneral, and, among others, a combat of wild beasts for his entertainment at Berlin,[47]the Duke was able to return to his home, where all his real happiness was centered. He had owned, in one of his letters from Weissemberg, that his heart ached at the anticipation of a journey of eight hundred miles, before he could reach the Hague: and innumerable obstacles delayed his return until the fourth of December, when the wearied general sailed up the Thames in one of the royal yachts, landed at Whitehall stairs, and proceeded the same afternoon to St. James’s, where he was graciously received by the Queen and Prince George.[48]The French prisoners, whom he was said by his political enemies to have brought for the purpose of adorning his triumph, were sent to Nottingham, for the ministry did not venture to trust these foreigners at Oxford this year; a singular, and as some persons thought, an indecorous respect and attention having been shown two years before, by the Oxonians, to some French prisoners of war who were quartered in their city.[49]

This was a proud era in the life of the Duchess of Marlborough. The year 1705 began with splendid processions, in which she and her husbandacted a conspicuous part. On the third of January the trophies reaped in the battle of Blenheim were removed from their first place of deposit, the Tower, to Westminster Hall. Companies of horse and foot-guards led the way; persons of rank were intermixed with the troops, and a hundred and twenty-eight pikemen, each bearing a standard, closed the triumphal procession. The Queen viewed the whole from the windows of the Lord Fitzharding’s lodgings in the palace, attended by her favourite, who heard, in the triumphant acclamations of the excited multitude, signals of destruction, ominous not only to our foreign foes, but presaging the downfal of political party opposed to her at home.

A grand entertainment at the city, in the Goldsmiths’-hall, succeeded this interesting display. Marlborough was conveyed to the banquet in one of the royal carriages, and gazed upon with curiosity and enthusiasm by the multitude. At Templebar he was received by the city marshals with the usual ceremonies.[50]

On the eleventh of the same month, the House of Commons unanimously agreed to send up an address to the Queen, humbly desiring that she would graciously be pleased to consider of some proper means to perpetuate thememory of those services which had been performed by the Duke of Marlborough.[51]

The Queen, having returned an answer that she would give the subject her consideration, on the seventeenth sent a message to the House, acquainting the members that she did incline to grant the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock, and hundred of Wootton, to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs; and desired the assistance of the House on this extraordinary occasion.

The lieutenancy and rangerships of the Park of Woodstock and Wootton, with the rent and profits of the manor and hundreds, having been already granted for two lives, her Majesty thought proper that the encumbrance should be cleared.

In compliance with her Majesty’s wishes, a bill was immediately brought in and passed, enabling her to carry into effect both these propositions; and the ancient royal domain of Woodstock, under the illustrious name of Blenheim, became the possession of the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs, upon the tribute of “a standard, or colours, with three flowers-de-luce painted on them, for all manner of rent, services,” &c., to be presentedannually, on the second of August, to the Queen, her heirs and successors.[52]

This munificent reward was increased soon afterwards by an order from the Queen to the Board of Works, to build, at the royal expense, a palace, which was to be entitled the Castle of Blenheim. A model of this edifice was framed for the approbation of the Queen, and the work begun under the superintendence of the celebrated John Vanburgh, then considered to be one of the most able architects of his time.

The important results of the battle of Blenheim could not be disputed, even by the bitterest enemies of Marlborough. The French, on their part, attached such direful effects on their country to this victory, that a proclamation was published in France, making it unlawful to speak of it;[53]nor could its consequences be concealed from those who would have been most desirous not to perceive them. “The power of France was,” says the Duchess, “broken by it to a great degree, and the liberties and peace of Europe were in a fair way to be established on firm and lasting foundations.”[54]Yet scandalous reports were, nevertheless, circulated respecting Marlborough, and the ungrateful world scrupled not still tosay that he carried on the war for his own private advantage, more especially for the accumulation of wealth, to which he was generally supposed to be addicted. But the Duke, although invited by his friends to spend more freely the vast fortune which he was yearly accumulating, adhered to those habits of frugality for which he had been remarkable even in his youth, and which, evincing an orderly mind, may be supposed to have conduced to the success of his plans through life.

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