belonged to a good though not a noble family, which for many generations
possessed a good estate in Hertfordshire. Her grandfather, Sir John
Jennings, was a zealous adherent to the royal cause before the
Revolution, and received the Order of the Bath, in company with his
patron, Charles I., then Prince of Wales. When Sarah was twelve years of
age, she found a kind friend in the Duchess of York, Mary Beatrice
Eleanora, Princess of Modena (an adopted daughter of Louis XIV.), who
married James, brother of Charles II. The young girl was thus introduced
to the dangerous circle which surrounded the Duke of York, and she
passed her time, not in profitable studies, but in amusements and
revels. She lived in the ducal household as a playmate of the Princess
Anne, and was a beautiful, bright, and witty young lady, though not well
educated. In the year 1673 she became acquainted with John Churchill, a
colonel of the army and a gentleman of the bedchamber to the Duke of
York,--the latter a post of honor, but of small emolument. He was at
that time twenty-three years of age, a fine-looking and gallant soldier,
who had already distinguished himself at the siege of Tangier. He had
also fought under the banners of Marshal Turenne in the Low Countries,
by whom he was called the "handsome Englishman." At the siege of
Maestricht he further advanced his fortunes, succeeding the famous Earl
of Peterborough in the command of the English troops, then in alliance
with Louis XIV. He was not a man of intellectual culture, nor was he
deeply read. It is said that even his spelling was bad; but his letters
were clear and forcible. He made up his deficiency in education by
irresistibly pleasing manners, remarkable energy, and a coolness of
judgment that was seldom known to err.
His acquaintance with the beautiful Sarah Jennings soon ripened into
love; but he was too poor to marry. Nor had she a fortune. They however
became engaged to each other, and the betrothal continued three years.
It was not till 1678 that the marriage took place. The colonel was
domestic in his tastes and amiable in his temper, and his home was
happy. He was always fond of his wife, although her temper was quick and
her habits exacting. She was proud, irascible, and overbearing, while he
was meek and gentle. In other respects they were equally matched, since
both were greedy, ambitious, and worldly. A great stain, too, rested on
his character; for he had been scandalously intimate with Barbara
Villiers, mistress of Charles II., who gave him £5000, with which he
bought an annuity of £500 a year,--thus enabling him to marry
Miss Jennings.
In 1685 Charles II. died, and was succeeded by his brother the Duke of
York, as James II. The new King rewarded his favorite, Colonel
Churchill, with a Scotch peerage and the command of a regiment of
guards, James's two daughters, the princesses Mary and Anne, now became
great personages. But from mutual jealousy they did not live together
very harmoniously. Mary, the elder daughter, was much the superior of
her sister, and her marriage with William of Orange was
particularly happy.
The Princess Anne was weak and far from being interesting. But she was
inordinately attached to Lady Churchill, who held a high post of honor
and emolument in her household. It does not appear that the attachment
was mutual between these two ladies, but the forms of it were kept up by
Lady Churchill, who had ambitious ends to gain. She gradually acquired
an absolute ascendency over the mind of the Princess, who could not live
happily without her companionship and services. Lady Churchill was at
this time remarkably striking in her appearance, with a clear
complexion, regular features, majestic figure, and beautiful hair, which
was dressed without powder. She also had great power of conversation,
was frank, outspoken, and amusing, but without much tact. The Princess
wrote to her sometimes four times a day, always in the strain of
humility, and seemed utterly dependent upon her. Anne was averse to
reading, spending her time at cards and frivolous pleasures. She was
fond of etiquette, and exacting in trifles. She was praised for her
piety, which would appear however to have been formal and technical.
She was placid, phlegmatic, and had no conversational gifts. She played
tolerably on the guitar, loved the chase, and rode with the hounds until
disabled by the gout, which was brought about by the pleasures of the
table. In 1683 she married Prince George of Denmark, and by him had
thirteen children, not one of whom survived her; most of them died in
infancy. As the daughter of James II., she was of course a Tory in her
political opinions.
Lady Churchill was also at that time a moderate Tory, and fanned the
prejudices of her mistress. But in order to secure a still greater
intimacy and freedom than was consistent with their difference in rank,
the two ladies assumed the names of Mrs. Morley and Mrs. Freeman. In the
correspondence between them the character of the Princess appears to the
greater advantage, since she was at least sincere in her admiration and
friendship. She assumes no superiority in any respect; in her
intellectual dependence she is even humble.
Anne was seemingly disinterested in her friendship with Lady Churchill,
having nothing to gain but services, for which she liberally compensated
her. But the society of a weak woman could not have had much fascination
for so independent and self-sustained a person as was the proud peeress.
It eventually became irksome to her. But there was no outward flaw in
the friendship until Anne ascended the throne in 1702,--not even for
several years after.
The accession of William and Mary in 1689 changed the position of Anne,
to whom the nation now looked as a probable future queen. She was at
that time severely censured for her desertion of her father James, and
her conduct seemed both heartless and frivolous. But she was virtually
in the hands of an unscrupulous woman and the great ministers
of State. On the flight of the King, James II., the Princess
Anne retired to Chatsworth,--the magnificent seat of the Earl of
Devonshire,--accompanied by Lady Churchill, her inseparable companion.
Two days before the coronation of William and Mary, Lord Churchill was
created Earl of Marlborough, and was sworn a member of the Privy Council
and a lord of the bedchamber. This elevation was owing to his military
talents, which no one appreciated better than the King, who however
never personally liked Marlborough, and still less his ambitious wife.
He was no stranger to their boundless cupidity, though he pretended not
to see it. He was politic, not being in a position to dispense with the
services of the ablest military general of his realm.
William III. was a remarkably wise and clearheaded prince, and saw the
dangers which menaced him,--the hostility of Louis XIV., the rebels in
Ireland, and the disaffection among the Jacobite nobility in England,
who secretly favored the exiled monarch. So he rewarded and elevated a
man whom he both admired and despised. William had many sterling
virtues; he was sincere and patriotic and public-spirited; he was a
stanch Protestant of the Calvinistic school, and very attentive to his
religious duties. But with all his virtues and services to the English
nation, he was not a favorite. His reserve, coldness, and cynicism were
in striking contrast with the affability of the Stuarts. He had no
imagination and no graces; he disgusted the English nobles by drinking
Holland gin, and by his brusque manners. But nothing escaped his eagle
eye. On the field of battle he was as ardent and fiery as he was dull
and phlegmatic at Hampton Court, his favorite residence. He was capable
of warm friendships, uninteresting as he seemed to the English nobles;
but he was intimate only with his Dutch favorites, like Bentinck and
Keppel, whom he elevated to English peerages. He spent only a few months
in England each year of the thirteen of his reign, being absorbed in war
most of the time with Louis XIV. and the Irish rebels.
William found that his English throne was anything but a bed of roses.
The Tories, in the tumults and dangers attending the flight of James
II., had promoted his elevation; but they were secretly hostile, and
when dangers had passed, broke out in factious opposition. The
high-church clergy disliked a Calvinistic king in sympathy with
Dissenters. The Irish gave great trouble under Tyrconnel and old Marshal
Schomberg, the latter of whom was killed at the battle of the Boyne. A
large party was always in opposition to the unceasing war with Louis
XIV., whom William hated with implacable animosity.
The Earl of Marlborough, on the accession of William, was a moderate
Tory, and was soon suspected of not being true to his sovereign. His
treason might have resulted in the return of the Stuarts but for the
energy and sagacity of Queen Mary, in whose hands the supreme executive
power was placed by William when absent from the kingdom. She summoned
at once the Parliament, prevented the defection of the navy, and
ferreted out the hostile intrigues, in which the lord-treasurer
Godolphin was also implicated. But for the fortunate naval victory of La
Hogue over the French fleet, which established the naval supremacy of
England, the throne of William and the Protestant succession would have
been seriously endangered; for William was unfortunate in his Flemish
campaigns.
When the King was apprised of the treasonable intrigues which endangered
his throne, he magnanimously pardoned Godolphin and the Duke of
Shrewsbury, but sent Marlborough to the Tower, although he soon after
released him, when it was found that several of the letters which
compromised him had been forged. For some time Marlborough lived in
comparative retirement, while his wife devoted herself to politics and
her duties about the person of the Princess Anne, who was treated very
coldly by her sister the Queen, and was even deprived of her guards. But
the bickerings and quarrels of the royal sisters were suddenly ended by
the death of Mary from the small-pox, which then fearfully raged in
London. The grief of the King was sincere and excessive, as well as that
of the nation, and his affliction softened his character and mitigated
his asperity against Marlborough, Shortly after the death of his queen,
William made Marlborough governor of the Duke of Gloucester, then (1698)
a very promising prince, in the tenth year of his age. This prince, only
surviving son of Anne, had a feeble body, and was unwisely crammed by
Bishop Burnet, his preceptor, and overworked by Marlborough, who taught
him military tactics. Neither his body nor his mind could stand the
strain made upon him, and he was carried off at the age of eleven by
a fever.
The untimely death of the Prince was a great disappointment to the
nation, and cast a gloom over the remaining years of the reign of
William, who from this time declined in health and spirits. One of his
last acts was to appoint the Earl of Marlborough general of the troops
in Flanders, knowing that he was the only man who could successfully
oppose the marshals of France. Only five days before his death the King
sent a recommendation to Parliament for the union of Scotland and
England, and the last act of Parliament to which he gave his consent was
that which fixed the succession in the House of Hanover. At the age of
fifty-one, while planning the campaign which was to make Marlborough
immortal, William received his death-stroke, which was accidental. He
was riding in the park of Hampton Court, when his horse stumbled and he
was thrown, dislocating his collar-bone. The bone was set, and might
have united but for the imprudence of the King, who insisted on going to
Kensington on important business. Fever set in, and in a few days this
noble and heroic king died (March 8, 1702),--the greatest of the English
kings since the Wars of the Roses, to whom the English nation owed the
peaceful settlement of the kingdom in times of treason and rebellion.
The Princess Anne, at the age of thirty-seven, quietly ascended the
throne, and all eyes were at once turned to Marlborough, on whom the
weight of public affairs rested. He was now fifty-three, active, wise,
well poised, experienced, and generally popular in spite of his ambition
and treason. He had, as we have already remarked, been a moderate Tory,
but as he was the advocate of war measures, he now became one of the
leaders of the Whig party. Indeed, he was at this time the foremost man
in England, on account of his great talents as a statesman and
diplomatist as well as general, and for the ascendency of his wife over
the mind of the Queen.
Next to him in power was the lord-treasurer Godolphin, to whom he was
bound by ties of friendship, family alliance, and political principles.
Like Marlborough, Godolphin had in early life been attached to the
service of the House of Stuart. He had been page to Charles II., and
lord chamberlain to Mary of Modena. The Princess Anne, when a young
lady, became attached to this amiable and witty man, and would have
married him if reasons of State had not prevented. After the Revolution
of 1688 his merits were so conspicuous that he was retained in the
service of William and Mary, and raised to the peerage. In sound
judgment, extraordinary sagacity, untiring industry, and unimpeached
integrity, he resembled Lord Burleigh in the reign of Elizabeth, and,
like him, rendered great public services. Grave, economical, cautious,
upright, courteous in manners, he was just the man for the stormy times
in which he lived. He had his faults, being fond of play (the passion of
that age) and of women. Says Swift, who libelled him, as he did every
prominent man of the Whig party, "He could scratch out a song in praise
of his mistress with a pencil on a card, or overflow with tears like a
woman when he had an object to gain."
But the real ruler of the land, on the accession of Anne, was the
favored wife of Marlborough. If ever a subject stood on the very
pinnacle of greatness, it was she. All the foreign ambassadors flattered
her and paid court to her. The greatest nobles solicited or bought of
her the lucrative offices in the gift of the Crown. She was the
dispenser of court favors, as Mesdames de Maintenon and Pompadour were
in France. She was the admiration of gifted circles, in which she
reigned as a queen of society. Poets sang her praises and extolled her
beauty; statesmen craved her influence. Nothing took place at court to
which she was not privy. She was the mainspring of all political cabals
and intrigues; even the Queen treated her with deference, as well as
loaded her with gifts, and Godolphin consulted her on affairs of State.
The military fame of her husband gave her unbounded _éclat_. No
Englishwoman ever had such an exalted social position; she reigned in
_salons_ as well as in the closet of the Queen. And she succeeded in
marrying her daughters to the proudest peers. Her eldest daughter,
Henrietta, was the wife of an earl and prime minister. Her second
daughter, Anne, married Lord Charles Spencer, the only son of the Earl
of Sunderland, one of the leaders of the Whig party and secretary of
state. Her third daughter became the wife of the Earl, afterwards Duke,
of Bridgewater; and the fourth and youngest daughter had for her husband
the celebrated Duke of Montague, grand-master of the Order of the Bath.
Thus did Sarah Jennings rise. Her daughters were married to great nobles
and statesmen, her husband was the most famous general of his age, and
she herself was the favorite and confidential friend and adviser of the
Queen. Upon her were showered riches and honor. She had both influence
and power,--influence from her talents, and power from her position. And
when she became duchess,--after the great victory of Blenheim,--and a
princess of the German Empire, she had nothing more to aspire to in the
way of fortune or favor or rank. She was the first woman of the land,
next to the Queen, whom she ruled while nominally serving her.
There are very few people in this world, whether men or women, who
remain unchanged under the influence of boundless prosperity. So rare
are the exceptions, that the rule is established. Wealth, honor, and
power will produce luxury, pride, and selfishness. How few can hope to
be superior to Solomon, Mohammed, Constantine, Theodosius, Louis XIV.,
Madame de Maintenon, Queen Elizabeth, Maria Theresa, or Napoleon, in
that sublime self-control which looks down on the temptations of earth
with the placid indifference of a Marcus Aurelius! Even prosperous
people in comparatively humble life generally become arrogant and
opinionated, and like to have things in their own way.
Now, Lady Marlborough was both proud by nature and the force of
circumstances. She became an incarnation of arrogance, which she could
not conceal, and which she never sought to control. When she became the
central figure in the Court and in the State, flattered and sought after
wherever she went, before whom the greatest nobles burned their incense,
and whom the people almost worshipped in a country which has ever
idolized rank and power, she assumed airs and gave vent to expressions
that wounded her friend the Queen. Anne bore her friend's intolerable
pride, blended with disdain, for a long time after her accession. But
her own character also began to change. Sovereigns do not like dictation
from subjects, however powerful. And when securely seated on her throne,
Anne began to avow opinions which she had once found it politic to
conceal. She soon became as jealous of her prerogative as her uncle
Charles and her father James had been of theirs. She was at heart a
Tory,--as was natural,--and attached to the interests of her banished
relatives. She looked upon the Whigs as hostile to what she held dear.
She began to dislike ministers who had been in high favor with the late
King, especially Lord Chancellor Somers and Charles Montague, Earl of
Halifax,--since these powerful nobles, allied with Godolphin and
Marlborough, ruled England. Thus the political opinions of the Queen
came gradually to be at variance with those advanced by her favorite,
whose daughters were married to great Whig nobles, and whose husband was
bent on continuing the war against Louis XIV. and the exiled Stuarts.
But, as we have said, Anne for a long time suppressed her feelings of
incipient alienation, produced by the politics and haughty demeanor of
her favorite, and still wrote to her as her beloved Mrs. Freeman, and
signed her letters, as usual, as her humble Morley. Her treatment of the
Countess continued the same as ever, full of affection and confidence.
She could not break with a friend who had so long been indispensable to
her; nor had she strength of character to reveal her true feelings.
Meanwhile a renewed war was declared against Louis XIV. on account of
his determination to place his grandson on the throne of Spain. The
Tories were bitterly opposed to this war of the Spanish succession, as
unnecessary, expensive, and ruinous to the development of national
industry. They were also jealous of Marlborough, whose power they feared
would be augmented by the war, as the commander-in-chief of the united
Dutch and English forces. And the result was indeed what they feared.
His military successes were so great in this war that on his return to
England he was created a duke, and soon after received unusual grants
from Parliament, controlled by the Whigs, which made him the richest man
in England as well as the most powerful politically. Yet even up to this
time the relations between his wife and the Queen were apparently most
friendly. But soon after this the haughty favorite became imprudent in
the expressions she used before her royal mistress; she began to weary
of the drudgeries of her office as mistress of the robes, and turned
over her duties partially to a waiting-woman, who was destined
ultimately to supplant her in the royal favor. The Queen was wounded to
the quick by some things that the Duchess said and did, which she was
supposed not to hear or see; for the Duchess was now occasionally
careless as well as insolent. The Queen was forced to perceive that the
Duchess disdained her feeble intellect and some of her personal habits,
and was, moreover, hostile to her political opinions; and she began to
long for an independence she had never truly enjoyed. But the Duchess,
intoxicated with power and success, did not see the ground on which she
stood; yet if she continued to rule her mistress, it was by fear rather
than love.
About this period (1706) the struggles and hostilities of the Whigs and
Tories were at their height. We have in these times but a feeble
conception of the bitterness of the strife of these two great parties in
the beginning of the eighteenth century. It divided families, and filled
the land with slanders and intrigues. The leaders of both parties were
equally aristocratic and equally opposed to reform; both held the people
in sovereign contempt. The struggle between them was simply a struggle
for place and emolument. The only real difference in their principles
was that one party was secretly in favor of the exiled family and was
opposed to the French war, and the other was more jealously Protestant,
and was in favor of the continuance of the war. The Tories accused
Marlborough of needlessly prolonging the war in order to advance his
personal interests,--from which charge it would be difficult to
acquit him.
One of the most prominent leaders of the Tories was Harley, afterwards
Earl of Oxford, who belonged to a Puritan family in Hertfordshire, and
was originally a Whig. He entered Parliament in the early part of the
reign of William. Macaulay, who could see no good in the Tories, in his
violent political prejudices maintained that Harley was not a man of
great breadth of intellect, and exerted an influence in Parliament
disproportionate to his abilities. But he was a most insidious and
effective enemy. He was sagacious enough to perceive the growing
influence of men of letters, and became their patron and friend. He
advanced the fortunes of Pope, Arbuthnot, and Prior. He purchased the
services of Swift, the greatest master of satire blended with bitter
invective that England had known. Harley was not eloquent in speech; but
he was industrious, learned, exact, and was always listened to with
respect. Nor had he any scandalous vices. He could not be corrupted by
money, and his private life was decorous. He abhorred both gambling and
drunkenness,--the fashionable vices of that age. He was a refined,
social, and cultivated man.
This statesman perceived that it was imperatively necessary for the
success of his party to undermine the overpowering influence of the
Duchess of Marlborough with the Queen. He detested her arrogance,
disdain, and grasping ambition. Moreover, he had the firm conviction
that England should engage only in maritime war. He hated the Dutch and
moneyed men, and Dissenters of every sect, although originally one of
them. And when he had obtained the leadership of his party in the House
of Commons, he brought to bear the whole force of his intellect against
both the Duke and Duchess. It was by his intrigues that the intimate
relations between the Duchess and the Queen were broken up, and that the
Duke became unpopular.
The great instrument by which he effected the disgrace of the imperious
Duchess was a woman who was equally his cousin and the cousin of the
Duchess, and for whom the all-powerful favorite had procured the office
of chamber-woman and dresser,--in other words, a position which in an
inferior rank is called that of lady's-maid; for the Duchess was wearied
of constant attendance on the Queen, and to this woman some of her old
duties were delegated. The name of this woman was Abigail Hill. She had
been in very modest circumstances, but was a person of extraordinary
tact, prudence, and discretion, though very humble in her
address,--qualities the reverse of those which marked her great
relative. Nor did the proud Duchess comprehend Miss Hill's character and
designs any more than the all-powerful Madame de Montespan comprehended
those of the widow Scarron when she made her the governess of her
children. But Harley understood her, and their principles and aims were
in harmony. Abigail Hill was a bigoted Tory, and her supreme desire was
to ingratiate herself in the favor of her royal mistress, especially
when she was tired of the neglect or annoyed by the railleries of her
exacting favorite. By degrees the humble lady's-maid obtained the same
ascendency over the Queen that had been exercised by the mistress of the
robes,--in the one case secured by humility, assiduous attention, and
constant flatteries; in the other, obtained by talent and brilliant
fascinations. Abigail was ruled by Harley; Sarah was ruled by no one but
her husband, who understood her caprices and resentments, and seldom
directly opposed her. Moreover, she was a strong-minded woman, who could
listen to reason after her fits of passion had passed away.