Visit Marlborough Estate, Churchill's birthplace
Dukes of Marlborough and Winston Churchill Stories Told at Blenheim
Oct 24, 2009
Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Now the residence of the 11th Duke, a relative of Britain’s legendary Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American Vanderbilt family, it still has ties to royalty through lineage shared with the Earls of Spencer, ancestors of Princess Diana, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Set in a 2,100-acre estate, eight miles from Oxford, it has 100 acres of formal gardens and seven acres of buildings, most constructed from 1705 to 1722. Blenheim Palace is a United Nations World Heritage Site.
Battle of Blenheim Makes Marlborough a Hero
John Churchill’s victory over French troops in Bavaria put an end to plans of Louis XIV, France’s “Sun King,” to rule all of Europe. To reward England’s hero and celebrate its victory over France, Blenheim Palace was constructed in lavish English Baroque style to rival the opulence of Versailles.
Because the Duke’s only son died at an early age, the palace and the title passed to his eldest daughter. She married into the Spencer family and her son, Charles Spencer, became the third Duke. The family name was later hyphenated to Spencer-Churchill by the fifth Duke “to perpetuate in His Grace’s family a surname to which his illustrious ancestor, John, first Duke of Marlborough, added such imperishable luster.”
Winston Churchill Born at Blenheim
Randolph Spencer-Churchill and his American wife, Jennie, were visiting his father at Blenheim in 1871 when Jennie fell while walking during a hunt. A rough ride in a pony carriage brought on Jennie’s labor and Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was born on Nov. 30, a month early, in a small bedroom off the palace’s Great Hall.
Tours of the palace include the bedroom, where locks of young Winston’s curls are framed and hung from the brass bedstead. An adjoining room contains the Prime Minister’s monogrammed slippers and the red velvet suit he wore during the long nights of World War II.
Churchill never lived at Blenheim, but often came to visit his grandmother, who gave him his first pony, which he rode on the estate. As he grew to manhood, he often visited his cousin, the ninth Duke, and in 1908 persuaded him to invite Clementine Hozier to the palace. While walking on the grounds, the couple took shelter from the rain at the Temple of Diana and it was here that Winston proposed. They spent part of their honeymoon in the palace.
Tours of Blenheim Palace feature exhibits of Churchill’s letters, including some lonely pleas for attention from his parents while he was in boarding school. Objects from World War II and a few of Churchill’s paintings, including some that became Hallmark Christmas cards, are also on display.
Churchill is buried next to his wife and parents in the churchyard in the nearby village of Bladon.
A Vanderbilt Joins the Marlborough Lineage at Blenheim
While Churchill had a happy marriage, his cousin did not. He married Consuelo, daughter of U.S. tycoon William Vanderbilt. It was an arranged marriage, says Blenheim tour guide Kate Merchant, “a case of American money marrying a British title.” They had two children before they divorced.
A painting by American impressionist John Singer Sargent in the palace’s Red Drawing Room depicts Consuelo standing on a step, towering over the Duke. In reality, there was no step. She was nearly 6 feet tall, considerably taller than the Duke, says Merchant, and she was a beauty with long, swan-like neck, dark hair and thin waist.
In the palace Saloon, or dining room, visitors admire a silver centerpiece so huge that diners seated at the table couldn’t see over or around it. Merchant says Consuelo had it placed between her and the Duke so she didn’t have to look at him during dinner.
Dukes of Marlborough Treasures Inside Blenheim Palace
Highlights of the tour of the palace interior include the 67-foot-high Great Hall, “China Alley” with displays of Meissen and Sevres china, and staterooms containing tapestries depicting the Battle of Blenheim, a circa 1685 Boulle chest, one of three in existence (the other two are in the Getty Museum in California), and a copy of notes written on a tavern bill by the first Duke describing his victory in battle.
The Long Library stretches 183 feet, the second longest room in any house in England. It contains 10,000 books, a Willis cathedral-style organ, framed invitations to the wedding of Lady Diana Spencer and Charles, Prince of Wales, coronation robes, and a statue of Queen Anne that depicts her as much smaller than she was in life, says Merchant. The queen actually stood 4 foot 9 inches and weighed 280 pounds.
The present Duke and his family live in the east end of the palace. Tours of their private apartments are given during the summer at the discretion of the family.
Blenheim Gardens a Treasure in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds
Much of the palace parks and gardens were naturalized by English landscape architect Lancelot “Capability” Brown, who added a lake and Grand Cascade, one of England’s most well-known waterfalls. The ninth Duke added an Italian Garden and Water Terraces that drew inspiration from Bernini’s work at Piazza Navona in Rome.
The grounds also contain a 134-foot Victory Column, Secret Garden, arboretum, rose garden, Marlborough Maze, Butterfly House, Adventure Play Area and Pleasure Gardens connected to the palace by a miniature train.
Visiting Blenheim Palace, Home of the Dukes of Marlborough
Blenheim Palace is open from mid-February to early December. Tickets can be purchased for the entire estate or the park and gardens only. Seasonal events include summer jousting tournaments and picnic-style concerts, Halloween and Christmas activities and the International Horse Trials in September. The estate has two restaurants and five shops.
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