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MARLBOROUGH
England’s Fragile Genius
RICHARD HOLMES 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
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
INTRODUCTION: Portrait of an Age
Marlborough and the Weight of History
The King Comes Home in Peace Again
Politics, Foreign and Domestic
