ACTIONS OF HIS GRACE JOHN, D. OF MARLBOROGH***


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[DANIEL DEFOE]

A SHORT NARRATIVE OF THE
Life and Actions
Of His GRACE
_JOHN_, D. of Marlborough

(1711)

_Introduction by_
PAULA R. BACKSCHEIDER







Publication Number 168
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
University Of California, Los Angeles
1974


GENERAL EDITORS

  William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
  George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles
  Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles
  David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles


ADVISORY EDITORS

  Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan
  James L. Clifford, Columbia University
  Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia
  Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles
  Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago
  Louis A. Landa, Princeton University
  Earl Miner, Princeton University
  Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota
  Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles
  Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
  James Sutherland, University College, London
  H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles
  Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library


CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

  Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library


EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

  Beverly J. Onley, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library


Typography by Wm. M. Cheney




INTRODUCTION

Opinion is a mighty matter in war, and I doubt but the French think it
impossible to conquer an army that he leads, and our soldiers think
the same; and how far even this step may encourage the French to play
tricks with us, no man knows.

    Swift's _Journal to Stella_, 1 January 1711

   ... the moment he leaves the service and loses the protection of
    the Court, such scenes will open as no victories can varnish over.

    Bolingbroke's _Letters and Correspondence_,
    23 January 1711


The career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, reflects the
political battles of nearly thirty years of English politics. In an
age when duplicity, intrigue, personality, and an immediate history of
violence characterized politics, John Churchill was a constant, steady
military success even while his political and personal fortunes
alternately plunged and soared. His military ability insured his
importance to the Grand Alliance and his victories brought the
reverence of the European powers opposing Louis XIV as well as that of
his own people, but, at the same time, his successes also assured his
involvement with the fortunes of nearly every major English political
figure and movement in the years 1688 to 1712.

Marlborough's military career spanned two periods. Aware of the danger
of the "exorbitant power of France" and the corresponding danger to
the Protestant religion, disgusted with James's actions at the
_Gloucester_ shipwreck and in dealing with Scottish Protestants,
Marlborough had joined the bloodless shift to William of Orange. For
William, he led the English forces in Flanders in 1689 and in Ireland
in 1690; in 1691 he was in charge of the British forces in Europe with
the rank of lieutenant-general. In January, 1692, however, Marlborough
was dismissed from all of his offices for a combination of reasons,
each insufficient in itself but all too typical for him--open
opposition to William's Dutch dominated army, rumors that he and
Sarah, his ambitious and sometimes presumptuous wife, were plotting
Anne's usurpation of the throne, and dissension aroused between Anne
and her sister Queen Mary by the quixotic Sarah. When rumors of a
Jacobite uprising began, Marlborough spent six weeks in the Tower.

Although Marlborough was restored to political favor in 1698 partly as
a placatory gesture to Anne, it was 1701 before he resumed his
military career, this time as William's Commander-in-Chief and
Ambassador Extraordinary to the United Provinces. In this second phase
of his military career, he won every battle, took every fort that he
besieged, held the Grand Alliance together, broke the threatening
supremacy of France, and established England as a major power. Yet,
during these ten years, Queen Anne's ministry and Parliament underwent
several major upheavals: the resulting shifts in policy and
personalities alternately inconvenienced and vexed Marlborough. The
year 1711 marked the culmination of warring factions and clandestine
arrangement, and Daniel Defoe's _A Short Narrative of the Life and
Actions of his grace, John, Duke of Marlborough_, published 20
February 1711, originated in this battle. (For discussion of
authorship, please see Appendix.)

Much that happened in these years can be unraveled back to Harley,
Earl of Oxford. His influences and circuitous dealing emerge wherever
a close examination of politics is made.[1] Hiding his activities from
even his closest associates, employing