page_title: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
section_title: Early campaigns
hierarchical_section_title: John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough / Later life (1700–1722) / War of the Spanish Succession / Early campaigns
context_page_description: General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, KG, PC, was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs. From a gentry family, he served first as a page at the court of the House of Stuart under James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s, earning military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill.
  Churchill's role in defeating the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685 helped secure James on the throne, but he was a key player in the military conspiracy that led to James being deposed during the Glorious Revolution. Rewarded by William III with the title Earl of Marlborough, persistent charges of Jacobitism led to his fall from office and temporary imprisonment in the Tower of London. William recognised his abilities by appointing him as his deputy in Southern Netherlands before the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701 but it was not until the accession of Queen Anne in 1702 that he secured his fame and fortune.
context_section_description: On 4 May 1702 (O.S.) England formally declared war on France. Marlborough was given command of the English, Dutch, and hired German forces, but he had not as yet commanded a large army in the field, and had far less experience than a dozen Dutch and German generals who must now work under him. His command had its limitations, however. As commander of Anglo-Dutch forces he had the power to give orders to Dutch generals only when their troops were in action with his own; at all other times he had to rely on his powers of tact and persuasion, and gain the consent of accompanying Dutch field deputies or political representatives of the States General. The Dutch generals and deputies were concerned by the threat of an invasion from a powerful enemy. Nevertheless, despite his Allies' initial lassitude the campaign in the Low Countries (the war's principal theatre) began well for Marlborough. After outmanoeuvring Marshal Boufflers, he captured Venlo, Roermond, Stevensweert and Liège, for which in December a grateful Queen publicly proclaimed Marlborough a duke.
  On 9 February 1703 (O.S.), soon after the Marlboroughs' elevation, their daughter Elizabeth married Scroop Egerton, Earl of Bridgewater. This was followed in the summer by an engagement between Mary and John Montagu, heir to the Earl of, and later Duke of, Montagu, (they later married on 20 March 1705 (O.S.)). Their two older daughters were already married: Henrietta to Godolphin's son Francis in April 1698, and Anne to the hot-headed and intemperate Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland in 1700. However, Marlborough's hopes of founding a great dynasty of his own reposed in his eldest and only surviving son, John, who, since his father's elevation, had borne the courtesy title of Marquess of Blandford. But while studying at Cambridge in early 1703, the 17-year-old was stricken with a severe strain of smallpox. His parents rushed to be by his side, but on Saturday morning, 20 February (O.S.), the boy died, plunging the duke into "the greatest sorrow in the world".
  Bearing his grief, and leaving Sarah to hers, the Duke returned to The Hague at the beginning of March. By now Marshal Villeroi had replaced Boufflers as commander in the Spanish Netherlands, but although Marlborough was able to take Bonn, Huy, and Limbourg in 1703, the "Great Design" – the Anglo-Dutch plan to secure Antwerp and thereby open the river lines into Flanders and Brabant – was left in ruins by Villeroi's initiative, poor Allied co-ordination, and by General Obdam's defeat at the Battle of Eckeren on 30 June. Domestically the Duke also encountered problems. The moderate Tory ministry of Marlborough, the Lord Treasurer Godolphin, and the Speaker of the House of Commons Robert Harley, were hampered by, and often at variance with, their High Tory colleagues whose strategic policy favoured the full employment of the Royal Navy in pursuit of trade advantages and colonial expansion overseas. To the Tories an action at sea was preferable to one ashore: rather than attack the enemy where they were strongest the Tories proposed to attack Louis XIV and Philip V where they were weakest – in their colonial empires and on the high seas. In contrast the Whigs, led by their Junto, enthusiastically supported the Ministry's Continental strategy of thrusting the army into the heart of France. This support wilted somewhat following the Allies' recent campaign, but the Duke, whose diplomatic tact had held together a very discordant Grand Alliance, was now a general of international repute, and the limited success of 1703 was soon eclipsed by the Blenheim campaign.
caption: John Churchill circa 1702
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