CHURCHILL, John, Duke of Marlborough, and prince of the holy Roman empire, a renowned general and statesman, was born at Ashe, in Devonshire, in 1650. He was eldest son of Sir Winston Churchill, who carried him tα court while very young; and there he was particularly noticed by James duke of York, afterwards king James II. when only twelve years of age. In 1666, he was made an ensign of the guards during the first Dutch war, and afterwards improved himself greatly in the military art at Tangier. In 1672, Mr Churchill attended the Duke of Monmouth, who commanded a body of auxiliaries in the French service, and was soon afterwards made captain in the duke’s own regiment. At the siege of Nimeguen, which happened in that campaign, he distinguished himself so much that he was taken notice of by the celebrated Marshall Turenne, who bestowed on him the name of “the handsome Englishman.” In 1673, he was present at the siege of Maestricht, where he gained such applause that the king of France made him a public acknowledgment of his services; and the Duke of Monmouth, who had the direction of the attack, told king Charles II. that he owed his life to Mr Churchill’s bravery. In 1681, he married Sarah, daughter and co-heiress, with her sister the countess of Tyrconnel, of Richard Jennings, Esquire, of Sandrich, in Hertfordshire. The Duke of York re-, commended him, in a very particular manner, to the king, who in 1682 created him Baron of Eyemouth, in the county of Berwick, in Scotland, and made him colonel of the third troop of guards. Soon after King James’s accession, he was created Baron Churchill of Sandrich, in the county of Hertford, and made brigadier-general of his majesty’s army in the west, where, when the Duke of Monmouth attempted to surprise the king’s army while the Earl of Feversham and the greater part of the officers were in bed, he kept the enemy in play till the king’s forces had time to form, and thereby saved the whole army. When James showed an intention of establishing the Catholic religion in Britain, Lord Churchill, notwithstanding the great obligations he owed to the king, thought it his duty to abandon the royal cause; but even then he did not leave James without informing him by letter of the reason for his so doing. Lord Churchill was graciously received by the Prince of Orange, and employed by him first to re-assemble the troop of guards at London, and afterwards to reduce some regiments lately ŗaised, and to new-model the army; for which purpose he was invested with the rank and title of lieutenant-general. In 1689, he was sworn a member of the privy council, and one of the gentlemen of the king’s bed-chamber; and on the 9th of April following, he was raised to the dignity of Earl of Marlborough, in the county of Wilts. He assisted at the coronation of their majesties; and was soon afterwards appointed commander-in-chief of the English forces sent over to Holland, where he first laid the foundation of that fame which was afterwards spread over all Europe. In 1690, he was appointed general of the forces sent to Ireland, and made the strong garrisons of Cork and Kinsale prisoners of war. In the year following, King William showed the high opinion he entertained of Lord Marlborough’s conduct, by sending him to Flanders to put all things in readiness, and to draw the army together before his arrival. In 1692, he was dismissed from all his employments, and not long afterwards committed, with some other peers, to the Tower, upon an accusation of high treason. This, however, being afterwards found to be a false and malicious report, the authors of it were punished. Marlborough was soon restored to favour, and, in 1698, appointed governor to the Earl of Gloucester; upon which occasion King William paid him this extraordinary compliment: “ĩSIy lord, make him but what you are, and my nephew will be all I wish to see him.” The same day he was again sworn of the privy council; and in July following he was declared one of the lords justices of England, for the administration of the government, with which great trust he was three times successively invested in the king’s absence. In 1701, he was appointed general of infantry, commander-in-chief of the English forces, and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the Hague. Upon the accession of Queen Anne to the throne, he was elected into the order of the garter, declared captaingeneral of all her majesty’s forces, and sent as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Holland. His warlike exploits have been noticed under the article Britain ; we shall therefore only mention in this place the rewards and honours conferred upon him for these brilliant achievements. After his first campaign he was created Marquis of Blandford and Duke of Marlborough, with a pension of L.5000 out of the post-office, to devolve for ever upon those enjoying the title of Duke of Marlborough. In 1703, he met Charles III., formerly emperor, proceeding to Spain, who presented him with a sword set with diamonds. In 1704, having forced the enemy’s lines at Schellenberg, he received a letter of thanks from the emperor Leopold, written with his own hand; an honour seldom conferred on any but sovereign princes. After the battle of Blenheim he received congratulatory letters from most of the potentates in Europe, particularly from the states-general, and from the emperor, who desired him to accept of the dignity of a prince of the empire; which, with the queen’s leave, was conferred upon him by the title of Prince of Mildenheim in the province of Suabia. After the campaign was ended, he visited the court of Prussia, where lie succeeded in suspending the disputes with the Dutch about King William’s estate; which wise conduct caused the whole confederacy to acknowledge that the duke had done the greatest service possible to the common cause. Upon his return to England, the queen, to perpetuate his memory, granted the interest of the crown in the honour and manor of Woodstock and hundred of Wotton, to him and his heirs for ever. ¼ In 1705, he made a tour to Vienna, upon the invitation of the emperor Joseph, who received him in the most gracious manner, and made him a grant of the lordship of Mildenheim. After the campaign of 1708, the speaker of the House of Commons was sent to Brussels on purpose to compliment him; and on his return to England he was again complimented in the House of Lords by Lord Chancellor Cowper. After the change of the ministry in 1710, his interest daily declined; and in 1712, on the first day of the new year, he was removed from all his offices. Finding all arts used to [7:6:688]render him obnoxious to his native country, he visited his principality of Mildenheim, and several towns in Germany; after which he returned to England, and arrived there on the day of the queen’s death. Being welcomed by the nobility and foreign ministers, he attended King George I. in his public entry into London, and was appointed captain-general, colonel of the first regiment of foot guards, one of the commissioners for the government of Chelsea hospital, and master-general of the ordnance. Some years before his death be retired from public business. He died at Windsor Lodge in 1722, aged seventy-three, leaving behind him a very numerous posterity, allied to the noblest and greatest families in the kingdom. Upon his demise, all parties united in doing honour, or rather justice, to his merit; and his corpse was interred, on the 9th of August following, in Westminster Abbey, with all the solemnity due to a person who had deserved so highly of his country. The massive noble pile near Woodstock, which bears the name of Blenheim House, may be justly styled his monument; but without pretending to the gift of prophecy, one may venture to foretel that his glory will long survive that structure; and that as long as our histories remain, or indeed the histories of Europe, his memory will live and be the boast of Britain, which by his labours was raised to be the first of nations, as during the age in which he lived he was deservedly esteemed the first of men. If he had foibles, such as are inseparable from human nature, they were so hidden by the glare of his virtues as to be scarcely perceptible, or were willingly forgotten. A certain parasite, who thought to please Lord Bolingbroke by ridiculing the avarice of the duke, was stopped short by his lordship, who dryly remarked, “He was so very great a man, that I had forgotten he had that vice.”

Out of a variety of anecdotes concerning this illustrious personage, the following may here be noticed. One of the first things which lie did, when very young, was to purchase a box to put his money in; an indication of the economical, not to say avaricious, temper which accompanied him through life. Dr Joseph Warton relates, that on the evening of an important battle the duke was heard to chide his servant for having been so extravagant as to light four candles in his tent when Prince Eugeiie came to confer with him. Mr Richardson the painter has recorded a pleasing instance of the duke’s calmness of disposition, for which, indeed, he was always remarkable. “The Duke of Marlborough,” says the writer, “riding out once with Commissary Marriot, near the commissary’s house in the country, it began to rain, and the duke called for his cloak, Marriot having his put on by his servant immediately. The duke’s servant not bringing the cloak, he called for it again, but the man was still puzzling about the straps and buckles. At last, as it now rained very hard, the duke called again, and asked him ζ what he was about that he did not bring his cloak ?’ ‘ You must stay,’ grumbled the fellow, ‘ if it rains cats and dogs, till I can get at it.’ The duke only turned to Marriot and said, t I would not be of that fellow’s temper.’” The Duke of Marlborough, adds Mr Richardson, did by nature and constitution what Senecajudged by philosophy ought to be done: Quid est quare ego servi mei hilarius responsum, et contumaciorem vultum, flagellis et compedibus expiem?

Various characters have been drawn of the Duke of Marlborough. That by Dr Swift, in his History of the four last Years of the Queen, has all the malignity and meanness of a party pamphlet. He is even so foolish as to insinuate that the duke’s military accomplishments were problematical, and that he was destitute of personal courage. Of a very different complexion is the character of him given by another celebrated political opponent, Lord Bolingbroke. Speaking, in his Letters on History, of the consternation raised among the allies by the death of King William, and of the joy which that event gave to the French, his lordship observes, that “a short time showed how vain the fears of some and the hopes of others were. By his death the Duke of Marlborough was raised to the head of the army, and indeed of the confederacy; where he, a new, a private man, a subject, acquired, by merit and by management, a more deciding influence than high birth, confirmed authority, and even the crown of Great Britain, had given to King William. Not only all the parts of that vast machine, the grand alliance, were kept more compact and entire, but a more rapid and vigorous motion was given to the whole; and instead of languishing out disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of action. All those wherein he appeared, and many of those wherein he was not then an actor, but abettor, however, of their action, were crowned with the most triumphant success. I take, with pleasure, this opportunity of doing justice to that great man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired; and whose memory, as the greatest general and as the greatest minister that our country, or perhaps any other, has produced, I honour.”

Lord Chesterfield would have us believe that his remarkable personal accomplishments were the main instruments of liis fortune. “Of all the men,” says he, in his Letters to his Son, “that ever I knew in my life (and I knew him extremely welD, the late Duke of Marlborough possessed the graces in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them; and indeed he got the most by them; for I will venture (contrary to the custom of profound historians, who always assign deep causes for great events) to ascribe the better half of the Duke of Marlborough’s greatness and riches to those graces. He was eminently illiterate; wrote bad English, and spelled it still worse. He had no share of what is commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing shining in his genius. He had, most undoubtedly, an excellent plain good understanding, with sound judgment. But these alone would probably have raised him but something higher than they found him, which was page to King James II.’s queen. There the graces protected and promoted him; for while he was an ensign of the guards, the Duchess of Cleveland, then favourite mistress to King Charles II., struck by those very graces, gave him L.5000, with which he immediately bought an annuity for his life, of L.500, of my grandfather Halifax, which was the foundation of his subsequent fortune. His figure was beautiful; but his manner was irresistible by either man or woman. It was by this engaging graceful manner that he was enabled, during all his wars, to connect the various and jarring powers of the grand alliance, and to carry them on to the main object of the war, notwithstanding their private and separate views, jealousies, and wrongheadedness. Whatever court he went to (and he was often obliged to repair himself to some testy and refractory ones), he as constantly prevailed, and brought them into his measures. The pensionary Heinsius, a venerable minister, grown gray in business, and who had governed the republic of the United Provinces for more than forty years, was absolutely swayed by the Duke of Marlborough, who obtained a complete ascendency over him. He was always cool; and nobody ever observed the least variation in his countenance: he could refuse more gracefully than other people could, grant; and those who went away from him the most dissatisfied as to the substance of their business, were yet personally charmed with him, and in some degree comforted by his manner. With all his gentleness and gracefulness, no man living was more conscious of his situation, nor maintained his dignity better.” [7:6:689]“That the Duke of Marlborough,” says a commentator on this passage,. “was eminently distinguished for the gracefulness of his manners, cannot be questioned; but the Earl of Chesterfield appears to have attributed too much to their influence, when he ascribes the better half of the duke’s greatness and riches to those graces. That the uncommon gracefulness of his manners facilitated his advancement, and contributed to the success of his negotiations, may readily be admitted; but surely it must have been to much higher qualities that he owed the esteem of King William and of Prince Eugene, his reputation throughout all Europe, and his many victories and conquests. It was not by a polite exterior that he obtained his laurels at Schellenberg, at Oudenarde, at Ramillies, and at Blenheim.”

An extensive work, entitled Memoirs and Correspondence of the Duke of Marlborough, by the Rev. W. Coxe, was published at London in 1819, in 3 vols. 4to.

Churchill, Charles, a celebrated satirist, the son of Mr Charles Churchill, curate and lecturer of St John’s, Westminster, was born in February 1731. He was educated at Westminster school, and received some applause for his abilities from his tutors in that famous seminary. His capacity, however, was greater than his application, so that he acquired the character of a boy who could do good if he would. For want of proper skill in the learned languages, he was rejected from Oxford, whither his father had sent him; and probably this might have given occasion to the frequent invectives which we find in his works, against that university. Upon his return from thence he again applied to his studies in Westminster school, where, at seventeen years of age, he contracted an intimacy with a lady, to whom he was afterwards married, and their mutual regard for each other continued for several years. At the usual age of entering into orders, Mr Churchill was ordained by the late Bishop of London, and obtained a small curacy in Wales of L.30 a year. Thither he carried his wife; they took a small house; and he passed through the duties of his station with assiduity and cheerfulness. Happy 7 had it been for him had he continued there, to enjoy the fruits of piety, peace, and simplicity of manners. He was beloved and esteemed by his parishioners; and though his sermons were rather above the level of his audience, they were commended and followed. But endeavouring to advance his fortune by keeping a cider cellar, it involved him in difficulties which obliged him to leave Wales and proceed to London. But his father having died soon afterwards, he stepped into the church in which his parent had officiated; and in order to improve his income, which scarcely produced L.100 a year, he taught young ladies to read and write English at a boarding-school, kept by Mrs Dennis, where he behaved with the decency and decorum which became his profession. His method of living, however, bearing no proportion to his income, he contracted several debts in the city; and being unable to pay them, a jail, the terror of indigent genius, seemed ready to complete his misfortunes; but from this state of wretchedness he was relieved by the benevolence of Mr Lloyd, father of the poet of that name. Meanwhile Mr Lloyd, the son, wrote a poetical epistle called the Actor, which being read and approved by the public, gave the author a distinguished place among the writers of his age. This induced Mr Churchill to write the Rosciad. It first appeared without the author’s name; but the justness of the remarks, and the severity of the satire, soon excited public curiosity. Though he never disowned having written that piece, and even openly gloried in it, yet the public, unwilling to give so much merit to one alone, ascribed it to a combination of wits; nor were Messrs Lloyd, Thornton, and Colman, left unnamed upon this occasion. This misplaced praise soon induced Mr Churchill to throw off the mask, and the second edition appeared with his name at full length. As the Rosciad was the first of this poet’s performances, so many are of opinion that it is the best. His next performance was his Apology to the Critical Reviewers. This work is not without its peculiar merit; and as it was written against a set of critics whom the world was willing enough to blame, the public read it with their usual indulgence. But whilst his writings amused the town, his actions disgusted it. He now quitted his wife, with whom he had cohabited many years; and, resigning his gown and all clerical functions, he commenced a man of pleasure. To palliate in some measure the absurdities of his conduct, he undertook a poem called Night, a poem written upon a general subject, indeed, but proceeding upon false principles; namely, that whatever our follies are, we should never attempt to conceal them. When this and Mr Churchill’s other poems were shown to Dr Johnson, and his opinion of them asked, he allowed them but little merit; which being told to the author, he resolved to requite this private judgment with a public one. In his next poem of the Ghost, therefore, he drew this gentleman under the character of Pomposo; and those who disliked Dr Johnson allowed it to have merit. The poems of Night and the Ghost had not the rapid sale the author expected; but his Prophecy of Famine soon made ample amends for their failure. In this piece, written in the spirit of the famous North Briton, he exerted his virulent pen against the whole Scottish nation, adopting the prejudices of the mob, and dignifying scurrility by the aid of a poetic imagination. It had a rapid and extensive sale, as had been prophesied by Mr Wilkes, who said before its publication that he was sure it must take, as it was at once personal, poetical, and political. Several succeeding pieces were published, which, being written without effort, are read without pleasure. His Gotham, Independence, and The Times, seem to have been written by a man who merely desired to avail himself of the avidity of the public curiosity in his favour, and are rather aimed at the pockets than the hearts of his readers. Mr Churchill died in 1764, of a miliary fever, with which he was seized at Boulogne, in France, whither he had gone on a visit to Mr Wilkes. Several editions of his poems have been published both in 8vo and 12mo.