Marlborough: Britain’s Greatest General

Marlborough: Britain’s Greatest General
Richard Holmes

Bestselling military historian Richard Holmes delivers an expertly written and exhilarating account of the life of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough and Britain's finest soldier, who rose from genteel poverty to lead his country to glory, cementing its position as a major player on the European stage and saviour of the Holy Roman Empire.John Churchill is, by any reasonable analysis, Britain’s greatest-ever soldier. He mastered strategy, tactics and logistics. His big four battles, Blenheim (which saved the Holy Roman Empire), Ramilies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet were events at the very centre of the European stage. He captured Lille, France’s second city, overran Bavaria and beat a succession of French marshals so badly that one, the squat and energetic Bofflers, was rewarded by Louis XIV for only losing moderately.A coalition manager long before the phrase was invented, he commanded a huge polyglot army with centrifugal political tendencies and bending it to his will by sheer force of personality.Yet John Churchill was also deeply controversial. He accepted a pension from one of Charles II’s mistresses for services vigorously rendered. He owed his rise and his peerage to James II yet, determined to be on the winning side, he deserted him in his hour of need in 1688. He maintained regular correspondence with the Jacobites while serving William and Mary and with the French while fighting Louis XIV. He made money on a prodigious scale, but was notoriously tight-fisted, long regretting an annuity given to a secretary whose quick-wittedness saved him from capture. But in the age when commissions were bought and sold, and commanders often owed their position to the hue of their blood, he never lost his soldier’s confidence.

MARLBOROUGH

England’s Fragile Genius

RICHARD HOLMES

DEDICATION (#ulink_8d6c5e1b-d25f-5d03-9245-1ce2faa08e35)

I am so entirely yours, that if I might have all the world given me, I could not be happy but in your love.

The Hague, 20 April 1703/Ropley, 20 February 2008

EPIGRAPH (#u30b757ae-0507-5280-82e4-6e4a0eff12c2)

Our horsemen had now the better of the fight; but soon we beheld fresh bodies of horsemen, hastening to the relief of their half-defeated squadrons. Marlborough was at the head of this reserve of cavalry … I can still see him as, undaunted and serene, he rode forward amid the cheers of his troops, shouting ‘Corporal John’, the name they had given their hero; he was surrounded by his staff, evidently receiving his commands. I fell on his men with my whole regiment; he narrowly escaped being made prisoner – oh! That heaven was so unpropitious to France – but he was extricated, and my troopers were compelled to retreat.

COLONEL GERALD O’CONNOR, commanding anIrish regiment in French service, Ramillies, 1706

This is a world that is subject to frequent revolutions

SARAH DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH

CONTENTS

COVER (#u07f3f252-1034-5aa9-b9a0-80be97296fa6)

TITLE PAGE (#u21c3ecd5-103a-579c-b6a4-cf380b7cf65c)

DEDICATION (#ucd619f34-ff87-52dd-9dd6-4fd8d5686450)

EPIGRAPH (#udfd8d11a-0776-537a-8755-ed69efd0191b)

THE CHURCHILLS (#ubcb33697-42a1-5014-b982-c99345ed369f)

INTRODUCTION: Portrait of an Age (#uf9a23b99-a3ea-5e63-b495-eae7c70ea6b5)

Marlborough and the Weight of History

Portraits in a Gallery (#ulink_559c8580-17bd-57c7-8b24-cf5a33e194bf)

Century of Revolution (#ulink_52081fee-79e3-5c69-8225-9ce2fb36986a)

Influence and Interest (#ulink_dc32e6ca-07fb-5be8-9ed1-a0dfa8f47a78)

Whig and Tory (#ulink_a457a56c-045c-59d9-b3dc-c553c55ceadf)

1. Young Cavalier (#u51e791a0-1b01-5384-9ec4-7745ff932cb9)

Faithful but Unfortunate (#u5350b325-7a7a-4123-9137-bf62373be0e2)

The King Comes Home in Peace Again (#u873acee8-f563-4651-8eb2-64af37717963)

The Army of Charles II (#ue85f7491-cce6-48e6-89f2-d692cb9a5943)

Court and Garrison (#u48034a2b-4a7d-4fc7-a1b5-a1be76384c7d)

To the Tuck of Drum (#u2edd19bb-9fbb-4b37-b24a-01ca0009de41)

My Lady Castlemaine (#u0dce8118-8626-4b73-8978-5818f9b8cc85)

The Dutch War (#ua8299a9f-1dd4-4e49-acec-46045ecc632d)

The Imminent Deadly Breach (#ue0293e8a-631d-4819-a61e-c820ffaeb036)

The Handsome Englishman (#u50ebfb3d-1f35-4299-879b-e672920abbd7)

2. From Court to Coup (#u365ccaf1-34e7-5880-9cf1-33afc5cc35bf)

Love and Colonel Churchill (#u6b9c9ed4-d4a1-4437-89fc-d4ececffdf98)

Politics, Foreign and Domestic (#u038acdec-68af-4f3b-b054-753679c6efcb)

Domestic Bliss, Public Prosperity (#u6d092452-16f8-49f7-b2a5-0cb8c3543e09)

Monmouth’s Rebellion (#u52bd0c4a-bde5-413b-9ef9-fed2a8d71b13)

Uneasy Lies the Head (#udf45e806-6085-46e9-8c95-b588bdd1ec17)

3. The Protestant Wind (#litres_trial_promo)

Settling the Crown (#litres_trial_promo)

Little Victory (#litres_trial_promo)

Court and Country (#litres_trial_promo)

Irish Interlude (#litres_trial_promo)

Fall and Rise (#litres_trial_promo)

4. A Full Gale of Favour (#litres_trial_promo)

Gentlemen of the Staff (#litres_trial_promo)

First Campaign (#litres_trial_promo)