Earl of Marlborough, was born in 1650, the son of a
Devonshire Cavalier, whose daughter became at the Restoration mistress
of the Duke of York. The shame of Arabella did more perhaps than her
father's loyalty to win for her brother a commission in the royal
Guards; and after five years' service abroad under Turenne the young
captain became colonel of an English regiment which was retained in the
service of France. He had already shown some of the qualities of a great
soldier, an unruffled courage, a temper naturally bold and venturesome
but held in check by a cool and serene judgement, a vigilance and
capacity for enduring fatigue which never forsook him. In later years he
was known to spend a whole day in reconnoitring, and at Blenheim he
remained on horseback for fifteen hours. But courage and skill in arms
did less for Churchill on his return to the English court than his
personal beauty. In the French camp he had been known as "the handsome
Englishman"; and his manners were as winning as his person. Even in age
his address was almost irresistible; "he engrossed the graces," says
Chesterfield; and his air never lost the careless sweetness which won
the favour of Lady Castlemaine. A present of L5000 from the king's
mistress laid the foundation of a fortune which grew rapidly to
greatness, as the prudent forethought of the handsome young soldier
hardened into the avarice of age.

[Sidenote: Churchill and James.]

But it was to the Duke of York that Churchill looked mainly for
advancement, and he earned it by the fidelity with which as a member of
his household he clung to the Duke's fortunes during the dark days of
the Popish Plot. He followed James to Edinburgh and the Hague, and on
his master's return he was rewarded with a peerage and the colonelcy of
the Life Guards. The service he rendered James after his accession by
saving the royal army from a surprise at Sedgemoor would have been yet
more splendidly acknowledged but for the king's bigotry. In spite of his
master's personal solicitations Churchill remained true to
Protestantism. But he knew James too well to count on further favour
after a formal refusal to abandon his faith. Luckily for him he had now
found a new groundwork for his fortunes in the growing influence of his
wife over the king's second daughter, Anne; and at the crisis of the
Revolution the adhesion of Anne to the cause of Protestantism was of the
highest value. No sentiment of gratitude to his