Q The Queen’s Favourite

The Queen’s Favourite

History remembers Sarah Churchill, 1st Duchess of Marlborough, as the favourite of Queen Anne, a relationship brought to renewed attention in the 2018 Oscar-winning film starring Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz. The College possesses a notary’s copy of the Duchess’s last will and testament in a manuscript that probably dates from 1744, the year of her death at the age of 84.

Born in 1660, Sarah Jennings had in 1677 married the up-and-coming soldier John Churchill, later the victor of Blenheim, Outenaarde and Malplaquet. But it was with the accession to the throne of Queen Anne in 1702 that her fortunes reached their zenith. Sarah had known the queen since 1675, when she was 15 and Anne just ten. Now holder of roles such as Mistress of the Robes and Groom of the Stool, Sarah enjoyed unparalleled access to the queen, and proved to be as formidable a tactician in court politics as her husband showed himself on Europe’s battlefields. In fact, as jealous courtiers noted, she became a ‘She Minister’, advising Anne on matters of national, international, financial, political and military significance. Sarah’s apparent indifference to rank made her an invaluable confidante of a queen wary of flattering advisors, but Sarah’s once-valued informality turned to an unguarded and offensive outspokenness. After a series of quarrels, Anne dismissed Sarah from court in 1711, and the two women were not to be reconciled before Anne’s death in 1714.

Sarah’s will reveals the extent of her wealth. In it, she disposes of no fewer than 27 estates spread across several counties. These included Blenheim Palace, Marlborough House on the Mall, Wimbledon House (then a country residence), Holywell in St Albans, Cranbourne Lodge in Windsor Great Park and Bedford House in Bloomsbury. Touchingly, Sarah stipulates that she is to be interred at Blenheim on the condition that her husband’s body be committed with her. The Duke had died in 1722, and lay in repose in the crypt of the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey. As a consequence of the Duchess’s wishes, his remains were exhumed and removed to Blenheim in time for his wife’s funeral in November 1744.

Public curiosity over the Duchess’s earthly chattels was such that a printed version of her will was published in several editions in both London and Dublin. Our notary’s copy runs to 59 pages of elegant copperplate handwriting bound in buckram. Remarkably, the sheet of heavily bespeckled blotting paper used by the notary to dry his ink has remained undisturbed inside the manuscript for almost 300 years.