'He never besieged a town he did not take...

...or fought a battle he did not win.'

The Duke of Marlborough during the War of Spanish Succession

Matt over at the Waterloo to Mons blog has set a challenge to the blogging community to name our favourite general from history, and it should come as very little surprise to readers of this blog that my pick is John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. The reasons why would appear obvious, just from the quote above - England's (then Britain's) most successful general, the only Englishman to ever be in charge of a continental coalition in a major war, managing not only the military campaigns but diplomacy as well. (I'm not English by the way, I'm a colonial, so I don't know why that last sentence looks so jingoistically English).

But as you will see from some other entries, this isn't a challenge to blog about the 'best' generals, but about your favourite, and what I like about Marlborough is the complexity of the man. He came from an extremely obscure background, and used his talents - whether on the field of battle, at court or in the boudoir, to advance himself. He was not above accepting the favours of the Duchess of Cleveland to ensure that he had a steady income, and his position at court meant that when the Duke of York became King James II, Churchill was at the centre of power.

The next aspect is one where our man gets a lot of criticism. His betrayal of James - his benefactor - in favour of William III seems a callous abandonment, and many see it that way, no doubt heavily influenced by later Tory propaganda. My take on it is this: Churchill coming over to William brought a good part of the army with him. Had he stayed, so would many of his peers. For this reason I believe that this move was done for religious reasons, that Churchill was prepared to betray his friend for his beliefs. The fact that he then remained in communication with James afterwards is no surprise - betrayal or not, he was still his friend. It is this difficult and contentious history that makes Marlborough so fascinating.

Marlborough writing the Blenheim dispatch

Another part of Marlborough's life was his marriage to a woman whose overbearing attitude to Queen Anne would eventually see a major political shift in English government. Sarah Churchill is hard to like, and her moods must have been hard for Churchill to navigate - but he loved her whole-heartedly. Like his famous descendant, Sir Winston Churchill, Marlborough suffered from mental illness (no doubt not helped by his wife's behaviour), and despite this was able to run a major war that would exhaust and humble Louis XIV's France - at least until he lost the Queen's support and the coalition he had done so much to keep together collapsed. Thanks Sarah.

I think this portrait captures the personality of Sarah Churchill perfectly

Did Marlborough keep the war going just to make himself rich and powerful? The jealous Tories thought so, but the fact is that in 1709, with France on her knees, Marlborough was willing to rack up the highest body count of all 18th Century European battles in order to finish the war. The powers of resistance that the French showed were not just a great shock to Europe, but also to himself. As an aside, I have a firm dislike for Jonathan Swift, of Gulliver's Travels fame. The Tory pamphleteer was one of Marlborough's accusers, and has had a good deal of impact, amongst others, on sullying the man's reputation.

The Duke of Marlborough was an impressive character, despite faults like his notorious pecunious nature, dealing with huge pressures, and yet beloved enough by his soldiers to earn the nickname Corporal John.

If you are reading this, make a post about your favourite general too.

Nate