Blenheim Palace | Historic Oxfordshire Guide HERITAGE HIGHLIGHTS: Birthplace of Winston Churchill Blenheim Palace entrance Summary One of the great treasure houses of England, Blenheim Palace was a gift from a grateful Queen Anne to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. A descendant of the Duke was Winston Churchill, who was born in a small room near the grandiose main entry. An exhibit tells the story of Churchill's life and times. The interiors are truly magnificent: one of the most ebullient expressions of Baroque style in England. Designed by John Vanbrugh, and completed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, with grounds by Capability Brown. Take your time, there's a lot to take in. The House When John Churchill, leader of the English forces in the War of the Spanish Succession, triumphed over the French at Blenheim, in modern Austria, he might have suspected that Queen Anne would offer him some kind of reward. Surely he could not have foreseen just how generous the monarch would be. Churchill owed his good fortune to his wife Sarah, who was the queen's confident and best friend.

Anne made Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough, and had Blenheim Palace built for him on the former royal manor of Woodstock. The monarch had Parliament grant £240,000 for the construction of Blenheim, a huge sum in those days. So influential was Marlborough, mainly through the considerable political machinations of his wife, that it was said he was effectively the ruler of the country. South range and Great Court The architect responsible for creating one of the finest stately homes of his or any other age was John Vanbrugh. It was a curious appointment, as Vanbrugh had limited architectural experience, but the results, though not to everyone's tastes, speak for themselves. The Duchess wanted Sir Christopher Wren to take charge of the project, but for once she did not get her way. The Duke chanced to meet young playwright John Vanbrugh at a playhouse, and, it is said, was so impressed that he offered him the commission on the spot. There is more to the tale than this, for Vanbrugh had already begun the extravagant Castle Howard in Yorkshire, in conjunction with architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. Churchill probably knew of the work at Castle Howard and desired something equally extravagant at Blenheim.

HERITAGE HIGHLIGHT In the park at Blenheim is Fair Rosamund's Well, supposed site of a house built by Henry II for his mistress, Rosamund de Clifford. Several legends surround Rosamund. One claims that the king built his lover's bower at the centre of a maze, through which he alone knew the path. Another tale claims that Rosamund took her own life, but an alternative version tells that Henry's volatile queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, poisoned her rival for the king's affections. If that was the case, he got his wish, for Vanbrugh created a lavish building, supremely ornate and very military in bearing. The house was designed to be seen from afar, which may explain something of the immense size and bulk of the edifice, which seems quite overdone up close. Churchill's birthplace chamber Work did not progress smoothly, however. Political factions in Parliament complained over the cost of the palace and the flamboyance of the design. Sarah Churchill, peeved that her favourite, Wren, had been bypassed for the commission, criticized Vanbrugh's work at every opportunity.

Finally she had Vanbrugh banned from the building site, though the architect snuck back in in secret to view progress. The work of completing Blenheim Palace was left to Nicholas Hawksmoor. When Blenheim was finally opened to the public in 1725 Vanbrugh and his wife attempted to view the palace but were refused entry. So controversial was Vanbrugh's design that, far from making his name, he received few other commissions as an architect. Long before that time Queen Anne had fallen out with Sarah Churchill, and refused further money to pay for the palace construction. The Duke and Duchess were exiled, only to return the day after Anne died in 1714. House or home Blenheim Palace Garden Gardens > England > Oxfordshire > Blenheim Palace Garden Blenheim Palace Garden An eighteenth century house and park with a nineteenth century garden. The palace, designed by Vanbrugh c1705, was the nation's reward to the first Duke of Marlborough for his victories over Louis XIV. Henry Wise designed the garden, in an Anglo-Dutch Baroque manner with a military cast. It had mock fortifications and regimented parterres. The first Duke died in 1722.

During the 1720s his wife, Sarah, canalised the River Glyme and had a triumphal bridge errected. In 1764, the 4th Duke commissioned Lancelot Brown, then at the apogee of his fame. Brown transformed the park by making the canal into a serpentine lake. He also naturalised the woods, designed a cascade and placed clumps in strategic positions. During the 1930s, the 9th Duke replanted a 'military' avenue east of the palace and commissioned Achille Duchêne to design a fine water parterre, west of the palace. Head Gardener's Comment The 4th Duke brought Capability Brown and William Chambers to make major changes to Palace Park and Gardens. The 5th Duke who was a horticulturalist of international standing developed extensive gardens. These are now sadly lost except for the Rose Garden recently restored by the present Duke. The greatest impact on Blenheim was made by the 9th Duke. He created the formal gardens to east and west of the Palace, he restored of the Great Court and he replanted the entrance avenue and the Grand Avenue.

In total he had half million trees planted in the Park. Inside the house the 9th Duke was responsible for a complete redecoration of the State Rooms. He also added extensively to the collection at Blenheim particularly the furniture. In the twentieth century during the both World Wars the dukes allowed Blenheim to be used in various ways for the war effort. The most famous member of the family was Sir Winston Churchill who was born at Blenheim and spent a considerable amount of time at the Palace. Winston was the grandson of the 7th duke. He was a close friend of the 9th Duke and Duchess. The 11th Duke committed his life to the preservation of this great house, and it was during his time that the Palace became a World Heritage Site (1987). Photograph © Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace Contact us Blenheim Palace - History Blenheim Palace was a gift to John, the first Duke of Marlborough, from Queen Anne and a grateful nation. Following Marlborough’s great victory at The Battle of Blenheim in 1704, he was awarded the Royal Manor of Woodstock, accompanied by a sum of £240,000.

Marlborough was charged to build for himself a great Palace as a monument to this victory. Blenheim Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, with assistance from Nicholas Hawksmoor. Building began in 1705 and was completed in 1722. Instrumental in the construction, interior design and decoration was Sarah, the First Duchess of Marlborough. Designed on a grand scale, the Palace was subsequently complemented in the 1760’s by the landscaping of Lancelot “Capability” Brown, who created the great lake over which Vanbrugh’s Grand Bridge now stands, adding the final piece of the magnificent composition that gives us the overall splendours of Blenheim Palace and its park today. Blenheim is still in the family of the Duke of Marlborough, lived in and much loved by the family. It was in 1874 that Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born in a small ground floor bedroom, adding another illustrious page to Blenheim’s history.

Architecture in Focus: Blenheim Palace | Engaging Places Architecture in Focus: Blenheim Palace By Karen Wiseman, Head of Education at Blenheim Palace | 22 October 2010 Tags: Article Archived article This article describes Blenheim Palace and the opportunities it offers for teaching activities in a range of curriculum areas. It includes links to two downloads: a short article about the history of the palace during the second world war, and a set of images concerned with the same period. Schoolboys at Blenheim Palace. Image reproduced with kind permission of His Grace, the Duke of Marlborough. Review Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire is a magnificent structure which has been designated a World Heritage Site. It was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The land upon which the Palace stands was a gift from Queen Anne for John Churchill after his victory at the Battle of Blenheim, August 13th 1704. Queen Anne also contributed to the cost of building the Palace.

The Palace was designed to be a monument but it has also always been a home, currently to the 12th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough following the passing of John Spencer-Churchill the 11th Duke in October 2014. As well as being a family home, the Palace was used as a school during the Second World War, when Malvern College was evacuated here. From 1940 – 1945 it was the Headquarters of MI5. The Palace has had an exciting history behind its doors but externally the structure of the building has not changed. Architectural style Blenheim Palace is an interesting example of Baroque architecture. The building is dramatic in size, symmetrical and extravagantly decorated inside and out. The Palace has a formal arrangement of State rooms which lie either side of the Great Hall and Saloon. Building highlights There are some unusual decorative features on the exterior of the Palace.

There are four gold balls on the roof; there are four finials on top of each tower that have a coronet with an orb over an upturned Fleur de Lys; there are four English stone lions mauling French cockerels; the Roman goddess of victory Minerva is placed over the main entrance; and a bust of the defeated Louis XIV gazes out over the south front. Quirky facts John Vanbrugh may have been the architect of the Palace, but Nicholas Hawksmoor made sure that the Palace stayed up. The master stone masons on site were the Strong family: Edward Senior and Edward Junior and Thomas, brother of Edward Senior. Sir Christopher Wren certainly considered the Strong family to be the leading builders of the time. They also part-owned the quarries at Taynton and Barrington which produced a considerable amount of stone for the Palace. The Strong brothers worked on many of the great building projects of their time. Thomas Strong laid the foundation stone of St Paul’s Cathedral with his brother Edward looking on. The Palace buildings and courtyards cover 7 acres. The Great Hall is 67 feet high (20 metres).

The Long Library is 183 feet long (56 meters) and 32 feet high (10 metres) and contains two false domes. The dry stone wall which encloses the Park is approximately 9 miles long. Sir Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in Dean Jones’ bedroom in November 1874. The 7th Duke and Duchess of Marlborough were his grandparents, the 8th Duke was his uncle and the 9th Duke was his cousin and great friend. Until the 9th Duke had his two sons Sir Winston was the next heir to the Ducal Coronet. The 8th Duke was a scientist who worked with Thomas Edison on the development of the phonogram (early Dictaphone). The 8th Duke also experimented with electricity and installed one of the earliest telephones in the country. Of course he could only make a call to the Long Library or Estate Office from his study as no one else had a telephone with which to receive calls! Winston Churchill’s bedroom. Image reproduced with kind permission of His Grace, the Duke of Marlborough.

Using the Palace as a teaching resource The Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1 This programme, led by Blenheim Palace staff, encourages the children to look at the shapes, colours and decorations on the Palace. The children are asked to count, observe and describe what they see. The Victorians – Key Stage 2 This visit gives an insight into life at Blenheim Palace during the Victorian era. The tour covers the life and work of servants in the Victorian period, as well as the family of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Dukes of Marlborough, all of whom were Victorian Dukes. Blenheim Palace at War – Espionage and Evacuees – Key Stages 2 & 3 This programme concentrates on how Blenheim Palace prepared for War, survived the invasion of 400 Malvern Schoolboys and kept the secrets of MI5. History 1000+ images about Sir John Vanbrugh, architect on Pinterest | Baroque, National trust and Entrance Forward Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, 15 miles (24 km) north of York.

One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh. Castle Howard has been the home of part of the Howard family for more than 300 years. It is familiar to television and movie audiences as the fictional "Brideshead Revisited" See More Blenheim Palace - Britain ExplorerBritain Explorer Blenheim Palace 1647 Views Only registered users can save listings to their favorites Blenheim Palace is a monumental mansion designed by the controversial architect Sir John Vanbrugh in the rare English Baroque style. The palace was originally meant to be a gift from Queen Anne and the British parliament to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in recognition of his important military victories against the French and Bavarians during the War of the Spanish Succession. The palace was named after the most famous of these which took place near the small village of Blindheim, Bavaria (Germany). It was built between 1705 and circa 1722 and is the only palace in the UK that is owned independently of either the church or monarchy.

Blenheim Palace is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. From the very beginning the construction project was fraught with deign disagreements, funding failures and political intrigue. The Duke’s wife, Sarah, was determined to use Sir Christopher Wren who was already famous for his work on St Paul’s Cathedral. To her annoyance her the Duke appointed Sir John Vanbrugh who, at the time was more designer than architect. From that point on the construction site was a never ending source of conflict. Vanbrugh’s ideas far exceeded the available funds and this pressure is thought to have contributed to the breakdown in the once excellent relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill although the primary reasons were, as usual, political. Both the Duke and his wife were eventually forced to live in exile in Europe and Scotland until the death of the Monarch. State funds for Blenheim Palace had ceased so the remainder of the project was paid for by the Duke himself. Vanbrugh was eventually dismissed from the project and banned from the site. The project was finished by Nicholas Hawksmoor sometime after the death of the Duke who, together with his wife are interred in the exceptional tomb that is part of the palace chapel.

Blenheim palace is unique as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. Over the following years the estate and palace were repeatedly redecorated and renewed by the Spencer-Churchill family but by 1880 the cost of maintaining it had become devastating. Fortunately, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, Charles Spencer-Churchill, married American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt and funds became available for the restoration of Blenheim Palace. On the 30th November 1874, Sir Winston Churchill, the man often described as Britain’s greatest prime minister, was born at Blenheim Palace. Known generally as just ‘Churchill’ he was responsible during WWII for rallying the leaders and people of Britain to successfully resist the Nazi military machine and ultimately secure the defeat of Germany. The estate is open to visitors and in addition to the Palace has many exceptional features including the Grand Bridge, The Column of Victory, Palace Chapel & Mausoleum as well as the Temple of Diana and The Temple of Health. A miniature railway transports visitors from the car parks to the Palace.

MOST MYSTERIOUS: The Eyes of Blenheim Palace Visitors to Blenheim Palace are often surprised to notice that the ceiling roof of the entrance portico is decorated with six remarkable eyes. Three of these are blue and three are brown and all of them look vaguely masonic in their design. They were painted in 1928 by artist Colin Gill based on strict instructions from Gladys, the remarkably beautiful and eccentric 2nd wife of the Ninth Duke of Marlborough. Gladys was renowned for her outstanding good looks and everyone who met het admitted that they were easily captivated by her exceptional eyes. The blue eyes of the portico are believed to be hers and there is even a record that she climbed to the top of the scaffolding with a blue scarf that matched their colour so that the painter would get them exactly right. The brown eyes are said to be those of the Duke but could equally have been those of the Duke’s first wife Consuela who was, for a time, close friends with Gladys. Gladys was a remarkable woman who had known some of the greatest artists and writers of the time including Monet, Rodin and Proust.

Men fell in love with her with regularity and she was pursued by Bernard Berenson, Hermann von Keyserling, the Duke of Connaught and d’Annunzio as well as Crown Prince of Prussia. She eventually married the Ninth Duke of Marlborough but was eventually evicted from the palace when the couple’s marriage broke down and her eccentric behaviour became too dangerous to ignore. It is said that she would carry a loaded pistol and when asked why she would answer that perhaps she would shoot the Duke. Gladys spent the last years of her life in a psychiatric hospital. To this day nobody is truly sure why she had the eyes painted or what they were meant to represent – or for that matter why there are three of each colour. Masonic connections, clairvoyance and spiritualism have all been suggested but there is no proof for any of these theories. Perhaps Gladys had them painted just because she could. NEAREST CAMPING AND CARAVANNING CLUB SITE Oxford John Vanbrugh: Biography of Baroque Architect see: Architecture Glossary .

John Vanbrugh's Architecture As well as being a talented playwright and politician, John Vanbrugh was - along with Inigo Jones (1573-1652) and Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) one of the greatest architects of the short-lived English Baroque. Influenced by the design work of Louis Le Vau (1612-70), as well as by elements used by Andrea Palladio (1508-80) in Venetian Renaissance architecture , Vanbrugh's three most important contributions to Baroque architecture are Blenheim Palace (1705-22) in Oxfordshire, Castle Howard (1702-12) in Yorkshire, and Seaton Delaval Hall (1718-28) in Northumberland. In the eyes of other Baroque architects , however, his designs were somewhat controversial, due to their monumental size and impracticality.

Like Wren, Vanbrugh was dependant on a support staff which in his case always included the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661-1736), who provided the practical ideas needed to realize the grandiose architecture of his boss. Like his older contemporary Wren, Vanbrugh was appointed Comptroller at the Royal Works, although he was was greatly overshadowed by Wren's successful designs for major London buildings, such as St Paul's Cathedral. Like Wren, however, his influence persisted into the era of late-18th century architecture . Biography After a colourful career writing controversial Restoration comedies for the stage, towards the end of the century Vanbrugh began to turn his attention, to architecture: completing a mini-tour of northern England in 1699, during which he visited and studied some of the great Elizabethan houses, such as: Burghley House, Wollaton Hall, Hardwick Hall and Bolsover Castle. In 1702, he designed Castle Howard in Yorkshire, for Lord Carlisle, a fellow member of the Kit-Cat Club in London.

Although untrained himself, he was able to rely on the technical skills of Nicholas Hawksmoor, the highly experienced former assistant to the great architect Sir Christopher Wren. Together, John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor brought English Baroque to its peak, with a combination of Greek architecture and Baroque design. The Vanbrugh-Hawksmoor style is sometimes described as "heavy", but it compensates for this in its heroic scale. Through the offices of Lord Carlisle, who was head of the Treasury, Vanbrugh was appointed comptroller of the Queen's works in 1702. The following year he began work on the Queen's Theatre, in the Haymarket, London. Unfortunately, due to poor acoustics and various additional problems, the project proved a disaster, and cost him a large sum of money. In 1705, Vanbrugh was commissioned by John Churchill (1650-1722), 1st Duke of Marlborough, to design Blenheim Palace, which had been gifted to him for his military victories in Europe.

The building - named after Marlborough's greatest battle, was the most coveted architectural commission of Queen Annes reign, and (thanks to Hawksmoor) proved to be a masterpiece. Alas, the Duke of Marlborough was too mean to pay for the palace's running costs, while the Duchess - in Vanbrugh's eyes, an insolent and wicked woman - proved impossible to deal with. All this led to enormous acrimony concerning costs and payments, and Vanbrugh resigned from the project in 1717, five years before its completion. In fairness, it should be noted that, while Vanbrugh assumed he was designing a national monument, the Duchess wanted a comfortable family home, and the fact that the kitchen was located four hundred yards away from the dining room did not help. Neither Vanbrugh, nor any royal advisor had foreseen the huge costs involved in running what was the largest domestic building in England! Despite all this, and the criticism of leading public figures such as Jonathan Swift and Horace Walpole, Vanbrugh's architecture was later stoutly defended by Joshua Reynolds (1723-92), President of the Royal Academy .

Vanbrugh was knighted by George I in 1714 and reappointed Comptroller of Royal Works in 1715. In 1716 he became architect to Greenwich Hospital. At the same time he continued to design other country mansions, such as Oulton Hall in Cheshire; Grimsthorpe Castle and Duncombe Hall in Yorkshire; Seaton-Delaval for Admiral George Delaval in Northumberland; King's Weston near Bristol; Eastbury in Dorsetshire; old Claremont House at Esher, Surrey; and Eaton Hall, Iver Grove, in Buckinghamshire. He also renovated Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdon for the Earl of Manchester. The settings of these houses were important, and Vanbrugh took a growing interest in landscape design , with out ever receiving credit for his garden architecture. Buildings Designed by John Vanbrugh These include: Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, England Place projects Top Surnames Nicholas Hawksmoor (1661 - 1736) Find a Grave Birth: 1661 Death: Mar.

24, 1736 Architect, originally assistant to Sir Christopher Wren and himself the designer of some of London's finest churches, and of the West towers of Wes... history Blenheim Palace Blenheim Palace (pronounced /ˈblɛnɪm/ blen-im[1]) is a monumental country house situated in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England. It is the principal residence of the dukes of Marlborough, and the only non-royal non-episcopal country house in England to hold the title of palace. The palace, one of England's largest houses, was built between 1705 and circa 1722. Blenheim Palace was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.[2] The building of the palace was originally intended to be a reward to John Churchill , 1st Duke of Marlborough, from a grateful nation for the duke's military triumphs against the French and Bavarians during the War of the Spanish Succession, culminating in the 1704 Battle of Blenheim.

However, soon after its construction began, the palace was to become the subject of political infighting; this led to Marlborough's exile, the fall from power of his duchess, and lasting damage to the reputation of the architect Sir John Vanbrugh . Designed in the rare, and short-lived, English Baroque style, architectural appreciation of the palace is as divided today as it was in the 1720s.[3] It is unique in its combined usage as a family home, mausoleum and national monument. The palace is also notable as the birthplace and ancestral home of Sir Winston Churchill. Following the palace's completion, it became the home of the Churchill, later Spencer-Churchill, family for the next 300 years, and various members of the family have in that period wrought changes, in the interiors, park and gardens. At the end of the 19th century, the palace was saved from ruin by funds gained from the 9th Duke of Marlborough 's marriage to American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt . The exterior of the palace remains in good repair.

Churchills His family had aristocratic relations, it belonged to the minor gentry rather than the upper echelons of 17th-century society. In 1678, Churchill married Sarah Jennings ,[4] and in April that year, he was sent by Charles II to The Hague to negotiate a convention on the deployment of the English army in Flanders. The mission ultimately proved abortive. In May, Churchill was appointed the temporary rank of Brigadier-General of Foot, but the possibility of a continental campaign was eliminated with the Treaty of Nijmegen.[5] When Churchill returned to England, the Popish Plot resulted in a temporary three-year banishment for[ James VII of Scotland & II of England and Ireland James Stuart, Duke of York]. The Duke obliged Churchill to attend him, first to The Hague, then in Brussels.[6] For his services during the crisis Churchill was made Lord Churchill of Eyemouth in the peerage of Scotland in 1682, and the following year appointed colonel of the King's Own Royal Regiment of Dragoons.[7] On the death of Charles II in 1685, his brother, the Duke of York, became King James II.

On James's succession Churchill was appointed governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. He had also been affirmed Gentleman of the Bedchamber in April, and admitted to the English peerage as Baron Churchill of Sandridge in the county of Hertfordshire in May. Following the Monmouth Rebellion, Churchill was promoted to Major General and awarded the lucrative colonelcy of the Third Troop of Life Guards.[8] When William, Prince of Orange, invaded England in November 1688, Churchill, accompanied by some 400 officers and men, rode to join him in Axminster.[9] When the King saw he could not even keep Churchill—for so long his loyal and intimate servant—he fled to France.[10] As part of William III' s coronation honours Churchill was created Earl of Marlborough, sworn to the Privy Council, and made a Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber. During the War of the Spanish Succession Churchill gained a reputation as a capable military commander, and in 1702 he was elevated to the dukedom of Marlborough.

During the war he won series of victories, including the Battle of Blenheim (1704), the Battle of Ramillies (1706), the Battle of Oudenarde (1708), and the Battle of Malplaquet (1709). For his victory at Blenheim, Marlborough was given the former royal manor of Hensington (situated on the site of Woodstock) to site the new palace, and Parliament voted a substantial sum of money towards its creation. Marlborough's wife was by all accounts a cantankerous woman, though capable of great charm. She had befriended the young Princess Anne and later, when the princess became Queen, the Duchess of Marlborough, as her majesty's Mistress of the Robes, exerted great influence over the Queen on both personal and political levels. The relationship between Queen and Duchess later became strained and fraught, and following their final quarrel in 1711, the money for the construction of Blenheim ceased. For political reasons the Marlboroughs went into exile on the Continent until they returned the day after the Queen's death on 1 August 1714.

Site The estate given by the nation to Marlborough for the new palace was the manor of Woodstock, sometimes called the Palace of Woodstock, which had been a royal demesne, in reality little more than a deer park. Legend has obscured the manor's origins. King Henry I enclosed the park to contain the deer. Henry II housed his mistress Rosamund Clifford (sometimes known as "Fair Rosamund") there in a "bower and labyrinth"; a spring where she is said to have bathed remains, named after her. It seems the unostentatious hunting lodge was rebuilt many times, and had an uneventful history until Elizabeth I, before her succession, was imprisoned there by her half-sister Mary I between 1554 and 1555. Elizabeth had been implicated in the Wyatt plot, but her imprisonment at Woodstock was short, and the manor remained in obscurity until bombarded and ruined by Oliver Cromwell's troops during the Civil War. When the park was being re-landscaped as a setting for the palace the 1st Duchess wanted the historic ruins demolished, while Vanbrugh, an early conservationist, wanted them restored and made into a landscape feature.

The Duchess, as so often in her disputes with her architect, won the day and the remains of the manor were swept away. Architect The architect selected for the ambitious project was a controversial one. The Duchess was known to favour Sir Christopher Wren, famous for St Paul's Cathedral and many other national buildings. The Duke however, following a chance meeting at a playhouse, is said to have commissioned Sir John Vanbrugh there and then. Vanbrugh, a popular dramatist, was an untrained architect, who usually worked in conjunction with the trained and practical Nicholas Hawksmoor . The duo had recently completed the first stages of the Baroque Castle Howard. This huge Yorkshire mansion was one of England's first houses in the flamboyant European Baroque style. Marlborough had obviously been impressed by this grandiose pile and wished for something similar at Woodstock. Blenheim, however, was not to provide Vanbrugh with the architectural plaudits he imagined it would. The fight over funding led to accusations of extravagance and impracticality of design, many of these charges levelled by the Whig factions in power. He found no defender in the Duchess of Marlborough.

Having been foiled in her wish to employ Wren,[11] she levelled criticism at Vanbrugh on every level, from design to taste. In part their problems arose from what was demanded of the architect. The nation (who it was then assumed, by architect and owners, was paying the bills) wanted a monument, but the Duchess wanted not only a fitting tribute to her husband but also a comfortable home, two requirements that were not compatible in 18th-century architecture. Finally, in the early days of the building the Duke was frequently away on his military campaigns, and it was left to the Duchess to negotiate with Vanbrugh. More aware than her husband of the precarious state of the financial aid they were receiving, she attempted to curb Vanbrugh's grandiose ideas, in an arrogant fashion (as was her wont) rather than explain the true reasons behind her frugality. Following their final altercation Vanbrugh was banned from the site. In 1719, while the Duchess was away, Vanbrugh viewed the palace in secret.

However, when he and his wife, with the Earl of Carlisle , visited the completed Blenheim as members of the viewing public in 1725, they were refused admission even to enter the park. The palace had been completed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, his friend and architectural associate. Vanbrugh's severe massed Baroque used at Blenheim never truly caught the public imagination, and was quickly superseded by the revival of the Palladian style. Vanbrugh's reputation was irreparably damaged, and he received no further truly great public commissions. For his final design, Seaton Delaval Hall, which was hailed as his masterpiece, he used a refined version of the Baroque employed at Blenheim. He died shortly before its completion. Funding the construction The precise responsibility for the funding of the new palace has always been a debatable subject, unresolved to this day. The palace as a reward was mooted within months of the Battle of Blenheim, at a time when Marlborough was still to gain many further victories on behalf of the country. That a grateful nation led by its Queen wished and intended to give their national hero a suitable home is beyond doubt, but the exact size and nature of that house is questionable.

A warrant dated 1705, signed by the parliamentary treasurer the Earl of Godolphin, appointed Vanbrugh as architect and outlined his remit. Unfortunately for the Churchills, nowhere did this warrant mention Queen or Crown. This error provided the escape clause for the state when the costs and political infighting escalated. The Duke of Marlborough contributed £60,000 to the initial cost when work commenced in 1705, which, supplemented by Parliament, should have built a monumental house. Parliament voted funds for the building of Blenheim, but no exact sum was mentioned nor provision for inflation or over-budget expenses. Almost from the outset, funds were spasmodic. Queen Anne paid some of them, but with growing reluctance and lapses, following her frequent altercations with the Duchess. After their final argument in 1712, all state money ceased and work came to a halt. £220,000 had already been spent and £45,000 was owing to workmen. The Marlboroughs were forced into exile on the continent, and did not return until after the Queen's death in 1714.

On their return the Duke and Duchess came back into favour at court. The 64-year-old Duke now decided to complete the project at his own expense. In 1716 work resumed, but the project relied completely upon the limited means of the Duke himself. Harmony on the building site was short-lived, as in 1717 the Duke suffered a severe stroke, and the thrifty Duchess took control. The Duchess blamed Vanbrugh entirely for the growing costs and extravagance of the palace, the design of which she had never liked. Following a meeting with the Duchess, Vanbrugh left the building site in a rage, insisting that the new masons, carpenters and craftsmen, brought in by the Duchess, were inferior to those he had employed. The master craftsmen he had patronised, however, such as Grinling Gibbons, refused to work for the lower rates paid by the Marlboroughs. The craftsmen brought in by the Duchess, under the guidance of furniture designer James Moore, and Vanbrugh's assistant architect Hawksmoor, completed the work in perfect imitation of the greater masters, so there was fault and intransigence on both sides in this famed argument.

"Under the auspices of a munificent sovereign this house was built for John Duke of Marlborough, and his Duchess Sarah, by Sir J Vanbrugh between the years 1705 and 1722, and the Royal Manor of Woodstock, together with a grant of £240,000 towards the building of Blenheim, was given by Her Majesty Queen Anne and confirmed by act of Parliament . . . to the said John Duke of Marlborough and to all his issue male and female lineally descending." Following the Duke's death in 1722, completion of the Palace and its park became the Duchess's driving ambition. Vanbrugh's assistant Hawksmoor was recalled and in 1723 designed the "Arch of Triumph", based on the Arch of Titus, at the entrance to the park from Woodstock. Hawksmoor also completed the interior design of the library, the ceilings of many of the state rooms and other details in numerous other minor rooms, and various outbuildings. Cutting rates of pay to workmen, and using lower-quality materials in unobtrusive places, the widowed Duchess completed the great house as a tribute to her late husband.

The final date of completion is not known, but as late as 1735 the Duchess was haggling with Rysbrack over the cost of Queen Anne's statue placed in the library. In 1732 the Duchess wrote "The Chappel is finish'd and more than half the Tomb there ready to set up".[12] Design and architecture Blenheim Palace, unscaled plan of the piano nobile. An enfilade of 9 state rooms runs the length of the southern facade of the palace (marked "N" to "G" at the top of the figure). It is a tribute to the craftsmanship of the carpenters who installed the doors between the rooms that with the keys removed it is possible to look through them all, from one end of the enfilade to the other. Key A: Hall; B: Saloon; C: Green Writing Room; L: Red Drawing Room; M: Green Drawing Room; N: Grand Cabinet; H: Library; J: covered colonnade; K: Birth Room of Sir Winston Churchill; H2: Chapel; O: Bow room. Vanbrugh planned Blenheim in perspective - that is to be best viewed from a distance.

As the site covers some seven acres (28,000 m²) this is also a necessity. Close to, and square on, the facades can appear daunting, or weighed down by too much stone and ornamentation. The plan of the Palace's principal block (or corps de logis) is a rectangle (see plan) pierced by two courtyards; these serve as little more than light wells. Contained behind the southern facade are the principal state apartments; on the east side are the suites of private apartments of the Duke and Duchess, and on the west along the entire length of the piano nobile is given a long gallery originally conceived as a picture gallery, but is now the library. The corps de logis is flanked by two further service blocks around square courtyards (not shown in the plan). The east court contains the kitchens, laundry, and other domestic offices, the west court adjacent to the chapel the stables and indoor riding school. The three blocks together form the "Great Court" designed to overpower the visitor arriving at the palace.

Pilasters and pillars abound, while from the roofs, themselves resembling those of a small town, great statues in the Renaissance manner of St Peter's in Rome gaze down on the visitor below, who is rendered inconsequential. Other assorted statuary in the guise of martial trophies decorate the roofs, most notably Britannia standing atop the entrance pediment in front of two reclining chained French captives sculpted in the style of Michelangelo,[13] and the English lion devouring the French cock, on the lower roofs. Many of these are by such masters as Grinling Gibbons. In the design of great 18th-century houses comfort and convenience were subservient to magnificence, and this is certainly the case at Blenheim. This magnificence over creature comfort is heightened as the architect's brief was to create not only a home but also a national monument to reflect the power and civilisation of the nation. In order to create this monumental effect, Vanbrugh chose to design in a severe form of Baroque, using great masses of stone to imitate strength and create shadow as decoration. The architect slightly tapered the sides of the east gate to create an illusion of even greater height.

The solid and huge entrance portico on the north front resembles more the entrance to a pantheon than a family home. Vanbrugh also liked to employ what he called his "castle air", which he achieved by placing a low tower at each corner of the central block and crowning the towers with vast belvederes of massed stone, decorated with curious finials (disguising the chimneys). Coincidentally these towers, which hint at the pylons of an Egyptian temple, further add to the heroic pantheonesque atmosphere of the building. There are two approaches to the palace's grand entrance, one from the long straight drive through wrought iron gates directly into the Great Court; the other, equally if not more impressive, betrays Vanbrugh's true vision: the palace as a bastion or citadel, the true monument and home to a great warrior. Piercing the windowless, city-like curtain wall of the east court is the great East Gate, a monumental triumphal arch, more Egyptian in design than Roman. An optical illusion was created by tapering its walls to create an impression of even greater height. Confounding those who accuse Vanbrugh of impracticality, this gate is also the palace's water tower.

Through the arch of the gate one views across the courtyard a second equally massive gate, that beneath the clock tower,[14] through which, rather like the sanctuary of a temple, one glimpses the Great Court. In this way Vanbrugh is giving even greater, almost God-like, importance to the areas of the palace occupied by the great Duke himself. This view of the Duke as an omnipotent being is also reflected in the interior design of the palace, and indeed its axis to certain features in the park. It was planned that when the Duke dined in state in his place of honour in the great saloon, he would be the climax of a great procession of architectural mass aggrandising him rather like a proscenium. The pediment over the south portico is a complete break from the convention. The flat top is decorated by a trophy bearing the marble bust of Louis XIV looted by Marlborough from Tournai in 1709, weighing 30 tons. The positioning of the bust was an innovative new design in the decoration of a pediment.

The line of celebration and honour of his victorious life began with the great column of victory surmounted by his statue and detailing his triumphs, and the next point on the great axis, planted with trees in the position of troops, was the epic Roman style bridge. The approach continues through the great portico into the hall, its ceiling painted by James Thornhill with the Duke's apotheosis, then on under a great triumphal arch, through the huge marble door-case with the Duke's marble effigy above it (bearing the ducal plaudit "Nor could Augustus better calm mankind"), and into the painted saloon, the most highly decorated room in the palace, where the Duke was to have sat enthroned. The Duke was to have sat with his back to the great 30-tonne marble bust of his vanquished foe Louis XIV, positioned high above the south portico. Here the defeated King was humiliatingly forced to look down on the great parterre and spoils of his conqueror (rather in the same way as severed heads were displayed generations earlier). The Duke did not live long enough to see this majestic tribute realised, and sit enthroned in this architectural vision.

The Duke and Duchess moved into their apartments on the eastern side of the palace, but the entirety was not completed until after the Duke's death. Palace chapel The palace chapel, as a consequence of the Duke's death, now obtained even greater importance. The design was altered by the Marlboroughs' friend the Earl of Godolphin, who placed the high altar in defiance of religious convention against the west wall, thus allowing the dominating feature to be the Duke's gargantuan tomb and sarcophagus. Commissioned by the Duchess in 1730, it was designed by William Kent, and statues of the Duke and Duchess depicted as Caesar and Caesarina adorn the great sarcophagus. In bas relief at the base of the tomb, the Duchess ordered to be depicted the surrender of Marshal Tallard. However, the theme throughout the palace of honouring the Duke did not reach its apotheosis until the dowager duchess's death in 1744. Then, the Duke's coffin was returned to Blenheim from its temporary resting place, Westminster Abbey, and husband and wife were interred together and the tomb erected and completed. [15] Now Blenheim had indeed become a pantheon and mausoleum.

Successive Dukes and their wives are also interred in the vault beneath the chapel. Other members of family are interred in St. Martin's parish churchyard at Bladon, a short distance from the palace.[16] Interior The internal layout of the rooms of the central block at Blenheim was defined by the court etiquette of the day. State apartments were designed as an axis of rooms of increasing importance and public use, leading to the chief room. The larger houses, like Blenheim, had two sets of state apartments each mirroring each other. The grandest and most public and important was the central saloon ("B" in the plan) which served as the communal state dining room. To either side of the saloon are suites of state apartments, decreasing in importance but increasing in privacy: the first room ("C") would have been an audience chamber for receiving important guests, the next room ("L") a private withdrawing room, the next room ("M") would have been the bedroom of the occupier of the suite, thus the most private. One of the small rooms between the bedroom and the internal courtyard was intended as a dressing room. This arrangement is reflected on the other side of the saloon.

The state apartments were intended for use only by the most important guests such as a visiting sovereign. On the left (east) side of the plan on either side of the bow room (marked "O") can be seen a smaller but nearly identical layout of rooms, which were the suites of the Duke and Duchess themselves. Thus, the bow room corresponds exactly to the saloon in terms of its importance to the two smaller suites. Blenheim Palace was the birthplace of the 1st Duke's famous descendant, Winston Churchill, whose life and times are commemorated by a permanent exhibition in the suite of rooms in which he was born (marked "K" on the plan). Blenheim Palace was designed with all its principal and secondary rooms on the piano nobile, thus there is no great staircase of state: anyone worthy of such state would have no cause to leave the piano nobile. Insofar as Blenheim does have a grand staircase, it is the series of steps in the Great Court which lead to the North Portico. There are staircases of various sizes and grandeur in the central block, but none are designed on the same scale of magnificence as the palace.

James Thornhill painted the ceiling of the hall in 1716. It depicts Marlborough kneeling to Britannia and proffering a map of the Battle of Blenheim. The hall is 67 ft (20 m) high, and remarkable chiefly for its size and for its stone carvings by Gibbons, yet in spite of its immense size it is merely a vast ante-room to the saloon. The saloon was also to have been painted by Thornhill, but the Duchess suspected him of overcharging, so the commission was given to Louis Laguerre. This room is an example of three-dimensional painting, or trompe l'œil, "trick-the-eye", a fashionable painting technique at the time. The Peace Treaty of Utrecht was about to be signed, so all the elements in the painting represent the coming of peace. The domed ceiling is an allegorical representation of Peace: John Churchill is in the chariot, he holds a zigzag thunderbolt of war, and the woman who holds back his arm represents Peace. The walls depict all the nations of the world who have come together peacefully.

Laguerre also included a self-portrait placing himself next to Dean Jones, chaplain to the 1st Duke, another enemy of the Duchess, although she tolerated him in the household because he could play a good hand at cards. To the right of the doorway leading into the first stateroom, Laguerre included the French spies, said to have big ears and eyes because they may still be spying. Of the four marble door-cases in the room displaying the Duke's crest as a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, only one is by Gibbons, the other three were copied indistinguishably by the Duchess's cheaper craftsmen. The Library The third remarkable room is the long library designed by Christopher Wren, (H), 180 ft (55 m) long, which was intended as a picture gallery. The ceiling has saucer domes, which were to have been painted by Thornhill, had the Duchess not upset him. The palace, and in particular this room, was furnished with the many valuable artefacts the Duke had been given, or sequestered as the spoils of war, including a fine art collection.

Here in the library, rewriting history in her own indomitable style, the Duchess set up a larger than life statue of Queen Anne, its base recording their friendship. From the northern end of the library—in which is housed the largest pipe organ in private ownership in Europe, built by England's great Organbuilder Henry Willis & Sons—access is obtained to the raised colonnade which leads to the chapel (H). The chapel is perfectly balanced on the eastern side of the palace by the vaulted kitchen. This symmetrical balancing and equal weight given to both spiritual and physical nourishment would no doubt have appealed to Vanbrugh's renowned sense of humour, if not the Duchess's. The distance of the kitchen from even the private dining room ("O" on the plan) was obviously of no consideration, hot food being of less importance than to avoid having to inhale the odour of cooking and proximity of servants.

Pipe organs The Long Library organ was built in 1891 by the famous London firm of Henry Willis & Sons at a cost of £3,669.[17] It replaced a previous organ built in 1888 by Isaac Abbott of Leeds, which was removed to St Swithun's church, Hither Green.[18] Originally erected in the central bay, with its back to the water terraces, the Norwich firm of Norman & Beard moved it to the northwestern end of the library in 1902 and made a few tonal additions and, the following year, cleaned it.[17] No further changes were made until 1930, when the Willis firm lowered the pitch to modern concert pitch: a Welte automatic player was added in 1931, with 70 rolls cut by Marcel Dupré, Joseph Bonnet, Alfred Hollins, Edwin Lemare and Harry Goss-Custard also being supplied.[17] This remained in use for some time: the Duke of the time is said to have frequently sat at the organ bench and pretended to play the organ to his guests and they would applaud at the end.

This practice is said to have been halted abruptly when the player started before the Duke had reached the organ. This famous instrument is regularly maintained and is played by visiting organists throughout the year, but its condition is declining: a fundraising campaign has been launched for its complete restoration.[19] The organ in the chapel was built circa 1853 by Robert Postill of York:[20] it is notable as a rare unaltered example of this fine builder's work, speaking boldly and clearly into a generous acoustic. Park and gardens Blenheim sits in the centre of a large undulating park, a classic example of the English landscape garden movement and style. When Vanbrugh first cast his eyes over it in 1704 he immediately conceived a typically grandiose plan: through the park trickled the small River Glyme, and Vanbrugh envisaged this marshy brook traversed by the "finest bridge in Europe". Thus, ignoring the second opinion offered by Sir Christopher Wren, the marsh was channelled into three small canal-like streams and across it rose a bridge of huge proportions, so huge it was reported to contain some 30-odd rooms.

While the bridge was indeed an amazing wonder, in this setting it appeared incongruous, causing Alexander Pope to comment: "the minnows, as under this vast arch they pass, murmur, 'how like whales we look, thanks to your Grace.'" Horace Walpole saw it in 1760, shortly before Capability Brown's improvements: "the bridge, like the beggars at the old duchess's gate, begs for a drop of water and is refused."[21] Another of Vanbrugh's schemes was the great parterre, nearly half a mile long and as wide as the south front. Also in the park, completed after the 1st Duke's death, is the Column of Victory. It is 134 ft (41 m) high and terminates a great avenue of elms leading to the palace, which were planted in the positions of Marlborough's troops at the Battle of Blenheim.

Vanbrugh had wanted an obelisk to mark the site of the former royal manor, and the trysts of Henry II which had taken place there, causing the 1st Duchess to remark, "If there were obelisks to bee made of all what our Kings have done of that sort, the countrey would bee stuffed with very odd things" (sic). The obelisk was never realised. Following the 1st Duke's death the Duchess concentrated most of her considerable energies on the completion of the palace itself, and the park remained relatively unchanged until the arrival of Capability Brown in 1764. The 4th Duke employed Brown who immediately began an English landscape garden scheme to naturalise and enhance the landscape, with tree planting, and man-made undulations. However, the feature with which he is forever associated is the lake, a huge stretch of water created by damming the River Glyme and ornamented by a series of cascades where the river flows in and out. The lake was narrowed at the point of Vanbrugh's grand bridge, but the three small canal-like streams trickling underneath it were completely absorbed by one river-like stretch.

Brown's great achievement at this point was to actually flood and submerge beneath the water level the lower stories and rooms of the bridge itself, thus reducing its incongruous height and achieving what is regarded by many as the epitome of an English landscape. Brown also grassed over the great parterre and the Great Court. The latter was re-paved by Duchene in the early 20th century. The 5th Duke was responsible for several other garden follies and novelties such as the swivelling boulder, which would suddenly roll across a path, to supposedly thrill the walker. Sir William Chambers, assisted by John Yenn, was responsible for the small summerhouse known as "The Temple of Diana" down by the lake, where in 1908 Winston Churchill proposed to his future wife. However, the ornamental gardens seen today close to the palace, the Italian and water gardens, are entirely the design of Duchene and the 9th Duke.

Failing fortunes ...as we passed through the entrance archway and the lovely scenery burst upon me, Randolph said with pardonable pride: This is the finest view in England Lady Randolph Churchill On the death of the 1st Duke in 1722, as both his sons were dead, he was succeeded by his daughter Henrietta. This was an unusual succession and required a special Act of Parliament,[22] as only sons can usually succeed to a dukedom. When Henrietta died, the title passed to Marlborough's grandson Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, whose mother was Marlborough's second daughter Anne. The 1st Duke as a soldier was not a rich man, and what fortune he possessed was mostly used for finishing the palace. In comparison with other British ducal families the Marlboroughs were not very wealthy. Yet they existed quite comfortably until the time of the 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766–1840), a spendthrift who considerably depleted the family's remaining fortune. He was eventually forced to sell other family estates, but Blenheim was safe from him as it was entailed.

This did not prevent him selling the Marlboroughs' Boccaccio for a mere £875, and his own library in over 4000 lots. On his death in 1840, he left the estate and family with financial problems.[citation needed] By the 1870s the Marlboroughs were in severe financial trouble, and in 1875 the 7th Duke sold the Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, together with the famed Marlborough gems, at auction for £10,000. However this was not enough to save the family. In 1880 the 7th Duke was forced to petition Parliament to break the protective entail on the Palace and its contents. This was achieved under the Blenheim Settled Estates Act of 1880, and the door was now open for wholesale dispersal of Blenheim and its contents. The first victim was the great Sunderland Library which was sold in 1882, including such volumes as The Epistles of Horace, printed at Caen in 1480, and the works of Josephus, printed at Verona in 1648.

The 18,000 volumes raised almost £60,000. The sales continued to denude the palace: Raphael's Ansidei Madonna was sold for £70,000; Van Dyck’s equestrian painting of Charles I realised £17,500; and finally the "piece de resistance" of the collection, Peter Paul Rubens' Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Peter Paul, which had been given by the city of Brussels to the 1st Duke in 1704, was also sold, and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[citation needed] These sums of money, vast by the standards of the day, failed to cover the debts, and the maintenance of the great palace remained beyond the Marlboroughs' resources. These had always been small in relation to their ducal rank and the size of their house. The British agricultural depression which started in the 1870s added to the family's problems.

When the 9th Duke inherited in 1892, the Spencer-Churchills were almost bankrupt.[citation needed] 9th Duke of Marlborough Charles, 9th Duke of Marlborough with his family by John Singer Sargent Charles, 9th Duke of Marlborough (1871–1934) can be credited with saving both the palace and the family. Inheriting the near-bankrupt dukedom in 1892, he was forced to find a quick and drastic solution to the problems. Prevented by the strict social dictates of late 19th-century society from earning money, he was left with one solution; he had to marry money. In November 1896 he coldly and openly without love married the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt. The marriage was celebrated following lengthy negotiations with her divorced parents: her mother, Alva Vanderbilt, was desperate to see her daughter a duchess, and the bride's father, William Vanderbilt, paid for the privilege.

The final price was $2,500,000 (worth about $62m in 2007) in 50,000 shares of the capital stock of the Beech Creek Railway Company with a minimum 4% dividend guaranteed by the New York Central Railroad Company. The couple were given a further annual income each of $100,000 for life. The bride later claimed she had been locked in her room until she agreed to the marriage. The contract was actually signed in the vestry of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, New York, immediately after the wedding vows had been made. In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he "despised anything that was not British".[this quote needs a citation] The replenishing of Blenheim began on the honeymoon itself, with the replacement of the Marlborough gems. Tapestries, paintings and furniture were bought in Europe to fill the depleted palace. On their return the Duke began an exhaustive restoration and redecoration of the palace. The state rooms to the west of the saloon were redecorated with gilt boiseries in imitation of Versailles.

Vanbrugh's subtle rivalry to Louis XIV's great palace was now completely undermined, as the interiors became mere pastiches of those of the greater palace. While this redecoration may not have been without fault (and the Duke later regretted it), other improvements were better received. Another problem caused by the redecoration was that the state and principal bedrooms were now moved upstairs, thus rendering the state rooms an enfilade of rather similar and meaningless drawing rooms. On the west terrace the French landscape architect Achille Duchêne was employed to create a water garden. On a second terrace below this were placed two great fountains in the style of Bernini, scaled models of those in the Piazza Navona which had been presented to the 1st Duke.[15] Inside the palace the staff was enlarged and smartened to suit a fabulously wealthy ducal household. The inside staff was of approximately 40, while the outside staff numbered 50, including the game-keeping staff of 12, electricians for the newly installed wiring, carpenters, flower arrangers, lodge keepers, and a cricket professional to ensure the success and honour of the estate cricket team.

The lodge keepers were dressed in black coats with silver buttons, buff breeches, and cockaded top hats. The gamekeepers donned green velvet coats with brass buttons and black billycock hats. Blenheim was once again a place of wonder and prestige. However, Consuelo was far from happy; she records many of her problems in her cynical and often less than candid biography The Glitter and the Gold. In 1906 she shocked society and left her husband, finally divorcing in 1921. She subsequently married a Frenchman, Jacques Balsan. She died in 1964, having lived to see her son become Duke of Marlborough, and frequently returning to Blenheim, the house she had hated and yet saved, albeit as the unwilling sacrifice.[15] After his divorce the Duke married again a former friend of Consuelo, Gladys Deacon, another American. This eccentric lady was of an artistic disposition, and a painting of her eyes still remains on the ceiling of the great north portico (see secondary lead image). A lower terrace was decorated with sphinxes modelled on Gladys and executed by W. Ward Willis in 1930.

Before her marriage while staying with the Marlboroughs she had caused a diplomatic incident by encouraging the young Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany to form an attachment. The prince had given her an heirloom ring, which the combined diplomatic services of two empires were charged to recover. After her marriage Gladys was in the habit of dining with the Duke with a revolver by the side of her plate. Tiring of her the Duke was temporarily forced to close Blenheim, and turn off the utilities in order to drive her out. They subsequently separated but did not divorce. The Duke died in 1934 and his widow in 1977.[15] The 9th Duke was succeeded by his and Consuelo Vanderbilt's eldest son: John, 10th Duke of Marlborough (1897–1972), who after eleven years as a widower, remarried at the age of 74, to (Frances) Laura Charteris, formerly the wife of the 2nd Viscount Long and the 3rd Earl of Dudley, and granddaughter of the 11th Earl of Wemyss.

The marriage was short-lived, however; the Duke died just six weeks later, on 11 March 1972. The bereaved Duchess complained of "the gloom and inhospitality of Blenheim" after his death, and soon moved out. In her autobiography, Laughter from a Cloud (1980), she referred to Blenheim Palace as "The Dump". She died in London in 1990.[15] The palace today The "Bernini Fountain", a scaled copy of the fountain in Rome's Piazza Navona given to the 1st Duke, was placed on the second terrace by Duchene. The palace remains the home of the Dukes of Marlborough, the present incumbent of the title being Charles James (Jamie) Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough. Charles James succeeded the Dukedom upon his father's death on 16 October 2014.

The palace, park, and gardens are open to the public on payment of an entry fee (maximum £21 as of December 2012).[23] Separation of tourist entertainment attractions (the "Pleasure Park") from the palace ensures that the atmosphere of a large country house is retained. The palace is linked to the park by a miniature railway, the Blenheim Park Railway.[24] The progression from home to business has been essential to the palace's survival in the 20th and 21st centuries. Varied commercial concerns include a maze, adventure playground, mini-train, gift shops, butterfly house, fishing, cafeteria and bottled Blenheim Natural Mineral Water. Game, farming and property rentals also provide income. Concerts and festivals are staged in the palace and park. Day-to-day control of commercial aspects are outsourced to Searcys, while the Duke retains final control over all matters in the running of the palace. The public have free access to about five miles (8 km) of public rights of way through the Great Park area of the grounds,[25] which are accessible from Old Woodstock and from the Oxfordshire Way, and which are close to the Column of Victory.

In the state apartments, guests are more likely to be the invitees of a large company, or a couple who have paid to marry at the palace, rather than guests of the Spencer-Churchills. However, the ducal family still entertain in the state rooms, and dine on special occasions in the saloon, around the great silver centrepiece depicting the 1st Duke of Marlborough on horseback—the same piece that Consuelo Vanderbilt liked to call her cache mari because it conveniently hid her detested husband from view across the table. The many residents of Blenheim have each left their mark on the palace. Today, it is as likely to be used as a film location[26] (such as Kenneth Branagh's 1996 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet) as it is for the setting for an aristocratic house party; yet it still hosts both. Blenheim Palace remains the tribute to the 1st Duke which both his wife and the architect Sir John Vanbrugh envisaged.

Question: Which architect designed Blenheim Palace?
Answer: Sir JOHN VANBRUGH