changed the
scene of the war from the Netherlands to Bavaria in southern Germany.
There, at the little village of Blenheim,[2] he, with Prince Eugene,
gained a victory over the French which saved Germany from the power of
Louis XIV. (See map opposite.) England, out of gratitude for the
humiliation of her powerful enemy, presented the Duke with the ancient
royal Park of Woodstock, near Oxford, and built for him the palace of
Blenheim, which the architect called "the biggest house for the
biggest man in England." It is still occupied by descendants of the
Duke's family. A few days before the battle of Blenheim, a powerful
English fleet had attacked and taken Gibraltar (1704). England thus
gained and still holds the command of the great inland sea of the
Mediterranean. In the course of the next five years Marlborough
fought three great battles,[3] by which he drove the French out of the
Netherlands once for all, and finally beat them on a hotly contested
field in northern France. The power of Louis XIV was now so far
broken that England no longer felt any fear that he would overcome her
colonies in America (S508).

[2] Blenheim: The palace grounds are nearly twelve miles in
circumference. The Marlborough family hold Blenheim on condition that
they present a flag every year (August 2) to the English sovereign at
Windsor Castle.
[3] Ramillies (1706); Oudenarde (1708); Malplaquet (1709).

510. The Powers behind the Throne; Jennings against Masham.

But if the Duke of Marlborough was remarkable, so too was his wife.
While the war was going on, the real power of the Crown, though it
stood in Anne's name, was practically in the hands of Sarah Jennings,
Duchess of Marlborough, who held the office of Mistress of the Robes.
She and the Queen had long been inseparable, and it was her influence
that cause Anne to desert her father (S491) and espouse the cause of
William of Orange.

The imperious temper of the Duchess carried all before it, and in her
department she won victories which might well be compared with those
the Duke, her husband, gained on the field of battle. In time her
sway over her royal companion grew to be so absolute that she seemed
to decide everything, from questions of state to the cut of a gown or
the color of a ribbon. Finally, it became a common saying that "Queen
Anne reigns, but Queen Sarah governs."[1]

[1] For years the Queen and the Duchess corresponded almost daily
under the names of "Mrs