Marlborough: Britain’s Greatest General
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Bestselling military historian Richard Holmes delivers an expertly written and exhilarating account of the life of John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough and Britain's finest soldier, who rose from genteel poverty to lead his country to glory, cementing its position as a major player on the European stage and saviour of the Holy Roman Empire.John Churchill is, by any reasonable analysis, Britain’s greatest-ever soldier. He mastered strategy, tactics and logistics. His big four battles, Blenheim (which saved the Holy Roman Empire), Ramilies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet were events at the very centre of the European stage. He captured Lille, France’s second city, overran Bavaria and beat a succession of French marshals so badly that one, the squat and energetic Bofflers, was rewarded by Louis XIV for only losing moderately.A coalition manager long before the phrase was invented, he commanded a huge polyglot army with centrifugal political tendencies and bending it to his will by sheer force of personality.Yet John Churchill was also deeply controversial. He accepted a pension from one of Charles II’s mistresses for services vigorously rendered. He owed his rise and his peerage to James II yet, determined to be on the winning side, he deserted him in his hour of need in 1688. He maintained regular correspondence with the Jacobites while serving William and Mary and with the French while fighting Louis XIV. He made money on a prodigious scale, but was notoriously tight-fisted, long regretting an annuity given to a secretary whose quick-wittedness saved him from capture. But in the age when commissions were bought and sold, and commanders often owed their position to the hue of their blood, he never lost his soldier’s confidence.
Оглавление
Richard Holmes. Marlborough: Britain’s Greatest General
DEDICATION
EPIGRAPH
CONTENTS
THE CHURCHILLS
INTRODUCTION. Portrait of an Age. Marlborough and the Weight of History
Portraits in a Gallery
Century of Revolution
Influence and Interest
Whig and Tory
1. Young Cavalier. Faithful but Unfortunate
The King Comes Home in Peace Again
The Army of Charles II
Court and Garrison
To the Tuck of Drum
My Lady Castlemaine
The Dutch War
The Imminent Deadly Breach
The Handsome Englishman
2. From Court to Coup. Love and Colonel Churchill
Politics, Foreign and Domestic
Domestic Bliss, Public Prosperity
Monmouth’s Rebellion
Uneasy Lies the Head
3. The Protestant Wind
Settling the Crown
Little Victory
Court and Country
Irish Interlude
Fall and Rise
4. A Full Gale of Favour
Gentlemen of the Staff
First Campaign
Empty Elevation
The 1703 Campaign
5. High Germany. Forging a Strategy
The Scarlet Caterpillar
Being Strongly Entrenched: The Schellenberg
The Harrowing of Bavaria
A Glorious Victory: Blenheim
6. The Lines of Brabant. Ripples of Victory
Hark Now the Drums Beat up Again
Happy and Glorious: Ramillies
7. The Equipoise of Fortune. Favourites, Bishops and the Union
A Sterile Campaign
Politics and Plans
The Campaign of 1708
The Devil Must have Carried Them: Oudenarde
In the Galley
8. Decline, Fall and Resurrection. Failed Peace, Thwarted Ambition
A Very Murdering Battle: Malplaquet
Failed Peace and Falling Government
Last Campaigns
Dismissed the Service
Exile and Return
NOTES
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY. ARCHIVES. British Library
National Archives
National Army Museum
Cadogan Papers, Cadogan Estate Office
Published Collections of Papers
Books
Articles and Pamphlets
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AUTHOR’S NOTE. Pounds, Shillings and Pence
Words and Dates
PRAISE
OTHER WORKS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER