General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, KG PC (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs.

Quotes

I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her army has had a Glorious Victory.

• I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know Her army has had a Glorious Victory.
  • Marlborough's message to Sarah Churchill scribbled on the back of a tavern reckoning while on horseback during the Battle of Blenheim (13 August 1704), quoted in Correlli Barnett, Marlborough (Wordsworth, 1999), p. 121.

Quotes about Marlborough

• He completed William's work in converting Britain from a peripheral and quasi-isolationist kingdom of little influence into a great power. He defeated the French bid to establish hegemony. ... it can be claimed that he and his achievement lived on in the career of Winston Churchill...by studying his career and the reasons for his success Winston Churchill equipped himself for the supreme tests which he was to have to endure after 10 May 1940.
  • J. R. Jones, Marlborough (Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 234

• ...in the ten campaigns he made against [the French]; during all which time it cannot be said that he ever slipped an opportunity of fighting, when there was any probability of coming at his enemy: and upon all occasions he concerted matters with so much judgement and forecast, that he never fought a battle which he did not gain, nor laid siege to a town which he did not take.
  • Robert Parker, Memoirs of the most remarkable military transactions from the year 1683 to 1718. Containing a more particular account than any yet published of the several battles, sieges, etc. ... By Captain R. Parker ... Published by his son (1747), p. 214

External links