 Complete the following phrase:  Churchill was not a peer, never held a title of nobility, and remained a commoner all his life. As the grandson of 7th Duke of Marlborough, he bore the quartered coat of arms of the Spencer and Churchill families. Paul Courtenay observes that It would be normal in these circumstances for the paternal arms Spencer to take precedence over the maternal Churchill, but because the Marlborough dukedom was senior to the Sunderland earldom, the procedure was reversed in this case. In 1817 an augmentation of honour was granted commemorating the 