Marlborough

by Richard Holmes

38 ‘Letters of the First Lord Orkney’ in English Historical Review April 1904 p.311.

  39 Goslinga Mémoires pp.1–2.

  40 Jacques Louis, comte de Noyelle en Falaise, was French-born but had entered Dutch service in 1674, commanded an infantry regiment and was promoted general in 1704. Marlborough had a high regard for him, and would have liked to see him command in Spain, where he died as adviser to the Hapsburg claimant to the throne.

  41 Atkinson Marlborough p.259.

  42 Millner Journal p.59.

  43 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 19 October 1703 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.256.

  44 Orkney ‘Letters’ in English Historical Review April 1904 p.313.

  45 Ibid.

  46 Blackader Life and Diary p.249.

  47 Deane Journal p.26.

  48 Marlborough to Galway 21 July 1705 in Murray Dispatches II p.183. There is some doubt about the number of guns: Deane says that they took ten, but Chandler’s note to Deane Journal p.27 suggests eighteen.

  49 Deane Journal p.27.

  50 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 18 July 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.459.

  51 London Gazette 23–27 August 1705.

  52 HMC Portland IV p.253.

  53 Churchill Marlborough IV p.215.

  54 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 20 July 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.460.

  55 Marlborough to Godolphin 27 July 1705 ibid. p.462.

  56 Marlborough to Godolphin 20 July 1705 ibid. p.458.

  57 Goslinga Mémoires pp.136–8.

  58 Marlborough to Heinsius 2 August 1705 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.199. Normally Marlborough seems to have kept no copies of his correspondence with Heinsius, but the fact that this appears in Murray Dispatches II p.197 demonstrates that copies were kept, suggesting that the issue of command had now become a live political matter.

  59 The issue is dealt with at length in A. Legrelle La Diplomatie Française et la Succession d’Espagne (6 vols, Paris 1892) IV pp.364–75.

  60 Marlborough to Berwick 30 October 1708 in Trevelyan Select Documents p.397.

  61 Deane Journal p.28.

  62 Marlborough to Godolphin 19 August 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I pp.473–4.

  63 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 24 August 1705 ibid. p.476.

  64 Portland to Marlborough 1 August 1705 OS, BL Add Mss 61153 f.218.

  65 Eugène to Marlborough 13 September 1705 in Coxe Marlborough I p.322.

  66 Queen Anne to Marlborough 6 September 1705 ibid. p.321.

  67 Bulletin of 19 August 1705 in Murray Dispatches II p.224.

  68 Marlborough to Heinsius 19 August 1705 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.203.

  69 Chandler Robert Parker p.56.

  70 Hare Journal in BL Add Mss 9114.

  71 Coxe Marlborough I p.313.

  72 An alternative has him refuse the duty on the grounds that the place was beneath his dignity: in either case his refusal left him wrong-footed.

  73 London Gazette 6–10 September 1705.

  74 Deane Journal p.30.

  75 Chandler Robert Parker p.57.

  76 London Gazette 16–20 August 1705.

  77 Marlborough to Godolphin 9 September 1705 in Coxe Marlborough I p.320.

  78 Marlborough to Heinsius 14 September 1705 in Marlborough – Heinsius pp.211–12.

  79 Marlborough to Godolphin 24 September 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.496.

  80 Marlborough to the emperor 19 July 1705 in Murray Dispatches II pp.178–9.

  81 Marlborough to Louis of Baden 3 September 1705 ibid. p.251.

  82 Marlborough to Lady Oglethorpe 17 September 1705 ibid. p.268.

  83 Marlborough to Godolphin 6 July 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.454.

  84 Marlborough to Duchess of Tyrconnell 5 September 1705 in Murray Dispatches II p.254.

  85 Marlborough to the queen 6 July 1707 in Coxe Marlborough II pp.131–2.

  86 Gregg Queen Anne p.203.

  87 Queen Anne to Marlborough 13 November 1705, BL Add Mss 61101 f.89.

  88 Marlborough to Godolphin 8 December 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.511.

  89 Burton Captain-General pp.94–5.

  90 Marlborough to Heinsius 26 March 1706 in Marlborough – Heinsius pp.229–30.

  91 Marlborough to Godolphin 9 May 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I pp.532–3.

  92 De Vault and Pelet VI pp.30–1.

  93 Marlborough to Godolphin 15 May 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I pp.535–6.

  94 Marlborough to Godolphin 9 May 1706 ibid. p.542.

  95 Marlborough to Harley 20 May 1706 in Murray Dispatches II p.518.

  96 Coxe Marlborough I p.375.

  97 Deane Journal p.34.

  98 Chandler Robert Parker p.59, Deane Journal p.34.

  99 Drake Amiable Renegade p.78. It seems likely that not all tents were struck: David Chandler, too good a Marlburian scholar to be brushed aside, suggests that reserves later became ‘entangled amidst the unstruck tents of the French camp behind Ramillies’ (Deane Journal p.36 fn 223).

  100 Goslinga Mémoires pp.12–13.

  101 De la Colonie Mémoires pp.393–4.

  102 Chandler Robert Parker p.60.

  103 De la Colonie Mémoires p.397.

  104 Mérode-Westerloo p.197.

  105 Letter 24 May 1706 in English Historical Review April 1704 p.315. The formal ‘Ramillies Order of Battle’ reproduced as Plate XII in Kane’s Campaigns follows representational convention rather than tactical fact by placing all the Allied horse on the flanks of the foot: we know, for instance, that Lumley’s horse were actually behind Orkney’s foot, not on their flank as the map suggests.

  106 De la Colonie Mémoires p.395.

  107 Orkney in English Historical Review April 1904 p.315.

  108 A. Wykes The Royal Hampshire Regiment (London 1968) p.29.

  109 Ibid. p.30.

  110 Blackader Life and Diary p.280.

  111 Chandler Robert Parker p.61.

  112 De la Colonie Mémoires p.399.

  113 Chandler Robert Parker pp.60–1.

  114 Orkney in English Historical Review April 1904 p.315.

  115 Marlborough to Godolphin 24 May 1704 and Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 24 May 1704 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I pp.545–6.

  116 HMC Portland IV p.309.

  117 Orkney in English Historical Review April 1904 p.315.

  118 Chandler Robert Parker p.60.

  119 Wykes Royal Hampshire Regiment p.29.

  120 Deane Journal p.35.

  121 Chandler Robert Parker p.61.

  122 Drake Amiable Renegade p.79.

  123 There was a long-running feud between Picardie and the Royal Scots, senior regiment of the British line and ‘Pontius Pilate’s bodyguard’ by nickname. Had they been on duty that first Easter, maintained some of the Scotsmen, there would have been no sleeping sentries and no Resurrection.

  124 Orkney in English Historical Review April 1904 p.316.

  125 Davies Life and Adventures pp.311–12.

  126 Deane Journal pp.39, 41.

  127 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 27 May 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.553.

  128 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 31 May 1706 ibid. pp.555–6.

  129 Marlborough to Godolphin 4 October 1706 ibid. II p.693.

  130 Villeroi to Louis XIV 3 June 1706 in De Vault and Pelet VI p.41.

  131 Marlborough to Harley 12 August 1706 in Murray Dispatches III p.78.

  132 Marlborough to Godolphin 1 November 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.727.

  133 Godolphin to Marlborough 8 April 1707 ibid. p.746.

  134 Godolphin to Marlborough 25 September 1706 ibid. p.694.

  135 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 7 October 1706 ibid. p.695.

  CHAPTER 7:

  The Equipoise of Fortune

  1 Gregg Queen Anne p.231.

/>   2 Ibid. pp.232–3.

  3 Sarah Duchess of Marlborough Life I p.415, II p.131.

  4 Gregg Queen Anne p.275.

  5 Godolphin to Marlborough 5 June 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.576. Charles, Lord Mohun, Whig, rake and duellist, was to kill (and be killed by) George, Duke of Hamilton (father of Marlborough’s unacknowledged grandson by Lady Barbara Palmer) in 1712.

  6 Sarah Duchess of Marlborough Life II p.140.

  7 Gregg Queen Anne p.237.

  8 There is still no readily available account of this battle in English: I rely here on Fortescue History I pp.487–9.

  9 Stanhope to Marlborough 3 May 1707 in Murray Dispatches III pp.352–3.

  10 Marlborough to Heinsius 17 December 1706 in Marlborough – Heinsius pp.286–7.

  11 See Bromley New Cambridge Modern History VI p.432 and R.M. Hatton Charles XII of Sweden (London 1968) p.232.

  12 Marlborough to Heinsius 15 May 1707 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.310.

  13 Eugène to Marlborough 13 July 1707 in Murray Dispatches III p.483.

  14 Marlborough to Godolphin 27 July 1707 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II pp.850–1.

  15 Chetwynd to Marlborough 14 August 1707 in Churchill Marlborough V p.283.

  16 Simon Harris Sir Cloudesley Shovell: Stuart Admiral (Staplehurst, Kent 2001) p.325.

  17 Eugène Memoirs pp.105–6.

  18 Rodger Command pp.171–2.

  19 Marlborough to Godolphin 25 August 1707 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.880.

  20 Godolphin to Marlborough 9 September 1709 ibid. p.908.

  21 Marlborough to Heinsius 17 September 1707 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.345.

  22 Marlborough to Godolphin 30 May 1707 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II pp.785–6.

  23 Cadogan to Raby 16 June 1707, Cadogan Papers.

  24 Marlborough to Heinsius 5 December 1707 in Marlborough – Heinsius pp.355–6.

  25 Sir John Cropley to the Earl of Shaftesbury n.d. [19 February 1708] in Geoffrey Holmes and William Speck ‘The Fall of Harley in 1708 Reconsidered’ in English Historical Review LXVI 1965 pp.695–6.

  26 Gregg Queen Anne p.264.

  27 Marlborough to Heinsius 27 February 1708 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.374.

  28 Godolphin to Marlborough 19 April 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.957.

  29 Rodger Command p.201.

  30 Marlborough to Godolphin 10 September 1705 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin I p.487.

  31 Marlborough to Godolphin 11 July 1707 ibid. II p.837.

  32 Scouller Armies of Queen Anne p.310.

  33 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 16 August 1706 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.645.

  34 Cadogan to Raby 18 August 1706, BL Add Mss 22196 f.33.

  35 Marlborough to Godolphin in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.645 and fn 2.

  36 Cadogan to Raby 29 December 1707 and 19 January 1708, Cadogan Papers.

  37 Cadogan to Raby 19 January 1708, Cadogan Papers.

  38 Marlborough to Cadogan 17 February 1708 in Murray Dispatches III pp.680–1.

  39 Louis XIV to Vendôme 20 and 21 May 1708 in De Vault and Pelet VIII pp.9, 17.

  40 Marlborough to Godolphin 3 May 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.960.

  41 Ailesbury II p.602.

  42 Marlborough to Heinsius 22 April 1708 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.382. The admirable Major J.N.P. Watson is wrong to suggest that ‘no British writer’ has mentioned this ‘plot’. It is referred to in both The Cambridge Modern History and Ivor Burton’s Captain-General.

  43 A.J. Veenendaal Het Engels – Nederlands Condominium in de Zuidelike Nederlanden … (Utrecht 1945) pp.187–8.

  44 De Vault and Pelet VIII p.11.

  45 Chandler Marlborough p.213.

  46 Marlborough to Boyle 5 July 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.96.

  47 Goslinga Mémoires p.45.

  48 Ibid.

  49 ‘Journal of March of the Confederate Army …’ in London Gazette 8–12 July 1708.

  50 Sergeant John Millner A Compendious Journal (London 1733) p.212.

  51 Hare Journal in BL Add Mss 9114.

  52 Goslinga Mémoires p.49.

  53 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 9 July 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1023.

  54 Goslinga Mémoires p.50.

  55 Eugène Memoirs p.14.

  56 Churchill Marlborough V p.397.

  57 Grumbkow to Frederick William I, 9? July 1708 in K.W. von Schöning (ed.) Das General-Feldmarschalls Dubsilaw Gneomar von Natzmer Leben und Kriegshaten (Berlin 1838) p.286.

  58 Marlborough to Murray 8 July 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.101.

  59 Marlborough to Godolphin 9 July 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1022.

  60 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 9 July 1708 ibid. p.1023.

  61 Marlborough to Heinsius 10 July 1708 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.390.

  62 Louis XIV to Burgundy 11 July 1708 in De Vault and Pelet VIII pp.30–1.

  63 Vendôme to Saint-Frémont 10 July 1708 ibid. p.33.

  64 Marlborough to Godolphin 9 July 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1023.

  65 Marlborough to Boyle 9 July 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.102.

  66 Schöning Natzmer p.288.

  67 Deane Journal p.59.

  68 Churchill Marlborough V p.407.

  69 Goslinga Mémoires pp.53–4.

  70 Eugène Memoirs p.113.

  71 D’Artaignan’s account in De Vault and Pelet VIII p.386.

  72 Schöning Natzmer p.289.

  73 Chandler Robert Parker p.73.

  74 Churchill Marlborough V p.418.

  75 Eugène Memoirs p.114.

  76 Schöning Natzmer p.293.

  77 Goslinga Mémoires p.59.

  78 Blackader Life and Diary p.318.

  79 Vendôme to Louis XIV 19 July 1708 in De Vault and Pelet VIII p.391.

  80 Eugène Memoirs p.116.

  81 Blackader Life and Diary p.320.

  82 Deane Journal p.62.

  83 Matthew Bishop The Life and Adventures of Matthew Bishop of Deddington in Oxfordshire (London 1744) p.160.

  84 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 12 July 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1024.

  85 Marlborough to Godolphin 12 and 16 June 1708 ibid. pp.1025, 1026.

  86 Goslinga Mémoires p.72.

  87 Eugène Memoirs p.118.

  88 Goslinga Mémoires p.68.

  89 Churchill Marlborough V p.442.

  90 Saint-Simon V p.64.

  91 Eugène Memoirs p.117.

  92 Bishop Life and Adventures p.162.

  93 De Vault and Pelet VIII p.89.

  94 Marlborough to the Earl of Manchester 15 July 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p. 109.

  95 Marlborough to Cadogan 31 July (twice) and 1 August 1708 ibid. pp.139–41.

  96 Marlborough to Cadogan 2 August 1708 ibid. p.144.

  97 Marlborough to Eugène 16 August 1708 ibid. p.173.

  98 De Vault and Pelet VIII p.91.

  99 Marlborough to Godolphin 20 September 1709 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1100.

  100 Marlborough to Boyle 23 August 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.184.

  101 Marlborough to Boyle 3 September 1708 ibid. pp.203–4.

  102 Marlborough to Galway 10 September 1708 ibid. pp.218–19.

  103 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 17 September 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1097.

  104 Blackader Life and Diary pp.327–8.

  105 Marlborough to Godolphin 20 September 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1099.

  106 Marlborough to Godolphin 24 September 1708 ibid. p.1100.

  107 Marlborough to Heinsius 24 September 1708 in Marlborough – Heinsius p.402.

  108 Marlborough to Earle 24 September 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.236.

  109 Marlborough to Earle 24 September 1708 ibid. p.240.

  110 This is the Fr
ench version from ‘Projet pour secourir Lille’ in De Vault and Pelet VIII pp.454–6. See also Churchill Marlborough V p.506.

  111 Marlborough to Godolphin 27 September 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1104.

  112 Lamotte ‘Détail du combat de Wynendaele’ in De Vault and Pelet VIII pp.444–9.

  113 London Gazette 20–23 September 1708.

  114 Marlborough to Webb 29 September 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.242.

  115 Marlborough to Godolphin 1 October 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1107.

  116 Godolphin to Marlborough 14 December 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1175.

  117 Kane Campaigns p.79.

  118 Duffy The Fortress p.38.

  119 Marlborough to Sunderland 19 October 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.269.

  120 Marlborough to Pascal 7 November 1708 ibid. p.293.

  121 Marlborough to Boyle 27 November 1708 ibid. p.323.

  122 Churchill Marlborough V p.523.

  123 Marlborough to Stair 10 November 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV pp.298–9.

  124 ‘Articles pour la citadelle de Lille’ 9 December 1708 in De Vault and Pelet VIII p.661. There were minor modifications to these terms: for instance, the Allies thought that ten rounds per man was quite enough. The inclusion of the ‘matches burning’ condition implies that there were still matchlocks in use by the French army, though equally it may simply be a formal survival from an even more smoky age.

  125 Goslinga Mémoires p.96.

  126 Marlborough to Godolphin 6 and 28 November 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II pp.1141, 1151.

  127 Marlborough to Godolphin 3 December 1708 ibid. p.1155.

  128 Marlborough to Godolphin 6 December 1708 ibid. p.1159.

  129 Marlborough to Duchess of Marlborough 17 December 1708 ibid. p.1171.

  130 Davies Life and Adventures pp.329, 340–1.

  131 Deane Journal p.74.

  132 Marlborough to Godolphin 3 January 1709 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II p.1184.

  CHAPTER 8:

  Decline, Fall and Resurrection

  1 Gregg Queen Anne p.277.

  2 Ibid. p.279.

  3 Godolphin to Duchess of Marlborough 25 and 22 October 1708 in Snyder Marlborough – Godolphin II pp.1139, 1137.

  4 Godolphin to Marlborough 26 October 1708 ibid. pp.1139–40.

  5 Godolphin to Marlborough 29 October 1708 ibid. p.1142.

  6 Prince George to Marlborough 28 May 1706 in BL Add Mss 61001 f.94.

  7 Marlborough to Boyle 27 November 1708 in Murray Dispatches IV p.323.