A Wealth Of Passion And Politics
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday September 21, 2002
THE FAVOURITE:
Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
By Ophelia Field
Hodder & Stoughton, 560pp, $60
Ophelia Field writes of a grand dinner given by Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, for members of her family, when she referred to her guests as ``a great tree, herself the root, and all her branches flourishing round her". When laughter came from the direction of her favoured grandson, John Spencer, he admitted he had joked ``the branches would flourish more when the root was underground".
Sarah Churchill, first Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1774), has been the subject of countless biographies. In this, her first effort at the genre, Ophelia Field is adept at documenting Sarah's accumulation of #1 million (equal to #82 million or $231 million today). Sarah became the richest woman in England with a controlling interest in the national debt, giving her sufficient wealth to determine the fate of the Bank of England and the power to drive the fledgling stock market.
Feisty, driven and passionate, she was committed to paring away the power and, as she saw it, the ``persecuting zeal" of the Tory politicians. King James II was determined to eradicate Presbyterianism. Witnessing executions of Scottish dissenters, whose martyrdom made a deep impression, Sarah turned towards the more religiously tolerant Whigs.
Even her husband, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, would receive a broadside from her razor-sharp tongue when he did not share her Whiggish persuasions. ``[U]pon my word," he wrote, ``when you are out of humour, and are dissatisfied with me, I had rather die than live; so on the contrary, when you are kind, I covet of all things a quiet life with you."
Field's main focus is on Sarah's close ties to Queen Anne as ``The Favourite" and as Groom of the Stole, Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy Purse, three of the top jobs in the Queen's court. Her power came from her influence over her Queen, together with her successful marriage. She recalled: ``In the late Queen's time, though I was a favourite, without the help of the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Godolphin I should not have been able to do anything of consequence, and the things that are worth naming will ever (only) be done from the influence of men."
However, the fact remained that Anne loved Sarah Churchill. Her sticky sentimental letters have survived 300 years and make tedious reading. But here I agree with Frances Harris's biography The Life of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough: A Passion for Government. It was politics and always politics that drove the passions and unleashed the fury of Sarah Churchill. She saw it as her responsibility to badger Anne with constant tirades of correction whenever the Queen could not be swayed to a Whiggish view. It was this that drove them apart. Sarah wore her down and suffered the humiliation of being replaced as the Queen's favourite.
Sarah Churchill would not walk away from a battle, but throughout her life was bombarded with a stream of vilification that appeared in thinly disguised verses in the press, and in slanderous letters. I am in no way advocating hagiography, but Sarah had spirit. At times, Field would seem to agree with previous biographers, presenting her subject as a harridan and a harpy. However, she is often quick to counter her own arguments and frequently includes instances of those who had cause to be grateful for Sarah's anonymous charitable endowments.
Probably unaware that she had been his patron, Daniel Defoe called Sarah the ``She-Dictator" who had controlled government. Dr Johnson referred to her as ``a good hater" in an age when the upper echelons of English society were defining ``politeness" as a new, particularly feminine ideal. When the Kit Cat literati club was formed, convening at the pub of Christopher Cat, women were not allowed. However, Sarah Churchill was known to frequent these meetings. When the Whigs fell from power, Lady Hyde would gloat that Sarah would have to ``forget all the joys of the Kit-Cat".
Sarah Churchill put her truth before expedience and not even her husband could persuade her against her determined politicking to put up and shut up was not her way. And this is what made her so remarkable.
John Churchill has often been relegated to the role of the long-suffering husband. But this is the same Marlborough whose Blenheim Palace stands like Versailles as a testament to one of his greatest victories. The fact that four-fifths of the revenue came from the State coffers became a blight on his memory. Field's biography records Sarah's vigilance in supervising the building, driving Sir John Vanbrugh mad with her economies.
Sarah drove a good many people mad with exasperation and in the 18th century, strong women with powerful and passionate emotions were satirised and vilified. Three hundred years after her death, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, still provides a fascinating wealth of material for her new biographer.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
