The Unique Blenheim Palace Built For Duke Of Marlborough | Real Royalty with Foxy Games

[Music] blenheim is quite unlike any other house in this series firstly it's not a house at all it's the palace created by an act of parliament secondly where most of britain's treasure houses were displays of wealth and status paid for by the families who built them blenheim was the gift of a grateful nation to a man who turned the tide of war so it's something of everything monument baroque castle family home but indisputably part of the nation's heritage [Music] [Music] [Music] on the battlefield at blenheim in bavaria in 1704 could john churchill the first duke of marlborough have imagined that his great victory over the french would lead to a palace that would last through time perhaps he and his wife the fiery sarah jennings were royal favorites sarah had been a longtime friend of queen anne when the french tried to take spain's empire in what became known as the war of the spanish succession it was to john churchill that britain turned to crush the opposing army the country rejoiced that the duke had defended her interests on the continent and the new queen was only reflecting the national mood when she gave him land at woodstock in oxfordshire parliament authorized the building of a monument which would mark forevermore the moment when britain finally crushed the ambition of louis xiv to rule all europe in case visitors needed reminding how this house came to be the east gate incorporated a plaque which told the story and tells it still under the auspices of a munificent sovereign this house was built for john duke of marlborough and his duchess sarah by sir j van brah between the years 1705 and 1722 and this royal manor of woodstock together with a grant of 240 000 pounds towards the building of blenheim was given by her majesty queen anne and confirmed by act of parliament in 1705 240 000 pounds was a huge sum but it still wasn't enough the marlboroughs had to find sixty thousand pounds of their own to complete the palace with all the decoration that a duke might expect marlboro chose the architect john vanbra to design his palace surveyor dramatist political spy here was a man who'd been imprisoned by the french for four and a half years and who in that time had soaked up the new baroque style in europe now he would develop it in england first at castle howard in yorkshire and then at blenheim it would consume 15 years of his life vanbra was self-taught but he worked closely with nicholas hawksmore a former clerk in the office of sir christopher wren together they set out to commemorate a great victory by carefully contriving the way in which visitors would approach the palace through a series of arches this procession of arches seems deliberately small intimate even to contrast with the great glory of blenheim the north front [Music] in a peacetime echo of marlborough's victory over the french van bruh wanted blenheim to rival versailles the palace built by louis xiv he gave john churchill baroque but a more refined baroque than the style which had swept through europe in the 17th century nevertheless it was bold like marlborough himself vanbra was never in doubt that this was first and foremost a monument to britain's prowess in war it was secondly a home for the nation's leading warrior but apart from the royal family few individuals in england could boast of a house so grand so imposing so magnificent [Music] in the 18th century first impressions were everything the interior had to match the exterior in grandeur and here in blenheim's great hall van bruh excelled it's a triumph of the master craftsmen from the carvings by grynlin gibbons to the ceiling painting by sir james thornhill everything has been built and designed on a ducal scale the lock on these huge doors is said to have been modeled on the gates to the city of warsaw and it has a key fit for a duke [Music] [Music] of course the inspiration for much of this decoration came from the ancient world marlborough was to be seen in the mould of the generals of the roman empire the columns the statues the pillars were all nodding towards another civilization no wonder that under the bust of the first duke his wife had inscribed the words in latin and in english nor could augustus better calm mankind grinling gibbons the leading carver of the day in wood and in stone gave the first duke a celebration of his royal favor from the arms of queen anne in the keystone to the corinthian capitals and the arches which were described as cut extraordinary rich and sunk very deep it would be difficult to find a more imposing entrance to any house and in shape and form and decoration today's visitors are seeing just what the duke's guests would have seen at the start of the 18th century [Music] but where are the other treasures here in the saloon used by the present duke only once a year on christmas day sir james thornhill who'd painted the ceiling in the great hall did the sketches but the first duchess fell out with him over the cost she turned instead to the french artist louis laguerre and paid him the modest sum of 500 pounds [Music] for that he included a ceiling which showed the duke riding to victory but stay by the hand of peace and a self-portrait of the artist to remind visitors down the ages just who was responsible for this triumph of the muralist's art the side table is set with a centerpiece by the silversmiths garad showing the duke on horseback pausing to write a dispatch from the battlefield at blenheim a moment in history immortalized in silver [Music] blenheim was a treasure house from the start the first duke would certainly recognize these rooms today but as with all great houses its treasures have been added to by successive generations a mighty organ by henry willis and sons at the end of the 19th century installed by the present duke's grandfather has become one of the new treasures of blenheim [Music] and successive dukes have cherished the original decoration [Music] from the tapestries which depict a string of successful battles fought by marlborough after blenheim to the letter from the battlefield itself carefully looked after for 300 years and handed down to the 11th duke john george vanderbilt spencer churchill well we're now coming into the green writing room and in here we have the famous tapestry of the battle of blenheim there's the first duke riding a great charger and he's receiving the surrender of martial telluride who's lifting his hat to him and in there you see a grenadier holding the fleur-de-lis the captain furtherly the flag of france you have this wonderful perspective in this tapestry leading to the danube and you see the french on the retreat towards the danube with the victorious english army over there and was this commissioned by his wife uh the duchess no well these were commissioned by the duke himself from davos in brussels there's a series of chapters of different battles that he wants and you'll see the rest throughout the house do you think he's he sits well on his horse very well he's got his heel well down and it's well balanced he looks a very fine man this is what all the marbles look like is it on horseback well um i'm not going to get it on horseback today but he would judge me but i used to write a lot and i think we do struggle strike our resentences throughout the generations [Music] the battle of blenheim a single day in 1704 was decisive [Music] france under louis xiv had set its sights on the spanish empire but spain was part of the grand alliance which included england and holland portugal and the holy roman empire when france and its ally bavaria moved to capture vienna the duke of marlborough led the allies on a 250 mile march from the netherlands to the danube in just five weeks he orchestrated a brilliant campaign of disinformation to confuse the other side about his destination and then when he reached bavaria his troops plundered villagers to persuade the enemy to fight so on the 13th of august the allies faced the french and the bavarians and the commander marshall tallard at blenheim by nightfall the french and bavarians had lost twenty thousand men the allies four and a half thousand the grand alliance had prevailed and the domination of europe by the french was over work was finished but he found time to send news of the victory to his wife this is the dispatch note sent by the first duke to his wife giving the account of the battle of blenheim so that she could pass it on to the queen it's very interesting to see that this is written very quickly on an old piece of scrap of paper which was a receipt from certain items that he had received from his troops and it's hardly written in pencil and it's kept intact all these years you you have a the it's written in block capitals here if i read it to you i want to ask you another question about this because it's fascinating i have not time to say more but beg you will give my duty to the queen and let her know her army has had a glorious victory marshall talard and two other generals are in my coach and i'm following the rest the bearer my ada colonel parker will give her an account of what has passed i shall do so in a day or two by another more at large it's signed marlborough but to write to his wife not to the queen not to anyone else not to the head of the army but to his word he was heavy well he was going to say he must have been the head of the army at that time but to write to his wife i know but they had a wonderful love affair they got on five to well the only thing they didn't really agree about was the building of this house of course the first two wanted as a monument to his his life and his all his victories and she wanted a smaller more modest house but she was wonderful because she was always determined to see the house completed and she was chasing the bills the whole time because she wanted it available for him to live in his latter part of his life and in after fact he was only able to live here three years before he died was it was it rare at that time for people to have this love affair you talk about a love affair but when you read about the many distractions a man like marlborough must have had when he was coming through the courts of the various monarchs you know to have this association with a woman that lasted all his life was quite remarkable yes it was and he he was always writing letters to it he was asking her how the progress of the house was and he also was saying how the peaches doing down in the gardens i see but he came from a very poor background in many ways didn't he so he must have taken a supreme delight in all the things that perhaps he never had as a child growing up exactly the great love story of john churchill and his duchess sarah is a theme throughout blenheim when he died in 1722 sarah commissioned william kent to design a memorial for the family chapel with her husband portrayed as a roman [Music] general after the first duke died sarah lived for a further 22 years would she recognize her house today certainly though she might be amused to meet visitors in every room seven days a week [Music] so it's nearly 300 years since they laid the foundations of this palace and in that time its decoration has been enhanced by a family which has always been conscious of its place in the life of the nation [Music] after the first duke the fourth duke was the first to live permanently at blenheim he changed the look of the palace by employing the celebrated landscape architect capability brown to create the grounds we see today [Music] the seventh duke inherited years of debt and presided over blenheim at a low point in its history he had to sell books from the long library to make ends meet the eighth duke was landed with the same money worries and was forced to sell 200 old masters but he used the funds which this raised to repair and maintain blenheim the ninth duke solved the financial problems of the estate by marrying consuela vanderbilt the influx of american money paid for the restoration of the state rooms and the long library which got its books back the tenth duke allowed pupils from molven school to use blenheim during the second world war and later gave over the long library to mi5 but he will be remembered most for his decision to open the palace to the public in nineteen fifty [Music] so it was a national treasure open to all which the 11th duke inherited in 1972 his was the challenge of bringing blenheim besieged by tourists into the 21st century [Music] it was the eighth duke who installed the willis organ in the long library and the ninth duke who provided the books all ten thousand of them but the room owes everything else to the first duke and especially nicholas hawksmore this is nicholas hawksmoor's finest room in blenheim 200 feet long 30 feet high and full of life and interest and like the rest of the palace these walls and these ceilings tell the story of a difficult birth blenheim was built over 15 years and in that time the duchess managed to fall out with just about everyone she rowed with john van bruh about his designs and expenses she crossed swords with hawks more she queried the bills of grindling gibbons and the painters at james thornhill by the time the long library was being decorated van bruhd left in a rage so at thornhill which explains the empty ceilings [Music] finally sarah lost the friendship of the queen yet twenty years after queen anne died the duchess appears to have relented she commissioned a statue by the flemish sculptor john michael reisbrach to the memory of queen anne and whose auspices john duke of marlborough conquered and to whose munificence he and his posterity with gratitude owe the possession of blenheim a.d 1746 well to me this is one of the most appealing of the treasures at blenheim out of this piece of italian marble has been carved a tapestry of cloth right down to the fringe detail and the lace and the urmin on this tall and imposing figure with the cinched in waist of queen anne when in fact queen anne was just four foot 10 inches high and weighed 300 pounds she died when she was just 49 years old [Music] after queen anne's death george the first honored the blenheim debt but the payments from the treasury had dwindled it was one reason craftsman drifted away though it may not have been completely finished they left behind a masterpiece it is undoubtedly one of the greatest private rooms in britain [Music] after the first duke died in 1722 hawksmoor remained in favor with the duchess but van brah was banned for good he tried to get into the park in 1725 to see his great creation but was turned away [Music] hawksmore completed the triumphal arch and saw blenheim through to completion the work itself was overseen by the cabinetmaker james moore it was a sorry ending for a story which had started with such vim and vigor [Music] later in the 18th century capability brown contrived the lake which is such a feature of the palace we know today but the great house was unchanged [Music] five years after the first duke died sarah commissioned the column of victory on the axis of the palace inscribed with the story of the battle of blenheim and the stirring words these are the actions of the duke of marlborough performed in the compass of a few years sufficient to adorn the annals of ages the acts of parliament shall stand as long as the british name and language last illustrious monuments of marlborough's glory and of britain's gratitude [Music] blenheim is all about words the grander the better in the 20th century president kennedy would lord winston churchill as the man who marshaled the english language and sent it into battle but churchill's ancestors had been doing it for years winston himself described the inscription on the column of victory as a masterpiece of compact and majestic statement in fact it would serve as a history in itself where all other records lost of the palace winston was to write in his book marlborough his life and times a paragraph which for the present duke says it all [Music] maura had set his heart upon this mighty house in a strange manner it was as a monument he desired it as the pharaohs built their pyramids so he sought a physical monument which would certainly stand if only as a ruin for the thousand years about his achievements he preserved the complete silence offering neither explanations nor excuses for any of his deeds his answer was to be this great house [Music] at blenheim everything had to be accompanied by words in the long library at the end of the 19th century it was not sufficient to ask the famed organ builders willis and sons to install an organ it had to be dedicated this is a wonderful description which is put there by my grandmother in 1891 for this willis organ it says in memory of happy days and as a tribute to this glorious home we leave thy voice to speak within these walls in years to come when ours are still i think it's so lovely that description [Music] in my grandfather's time he had a group of people here who were coming to auburn concert and he thought he would show them that he could play the organ and we there is a machine which plays organ rails and he timed it so the organ rail was switched on and it gave him time to get to the seat and pretend to be playing the organ unfortunately on the way to get into the seat he tripped up over a carpet and the organs started playing before he could sit down in front of it [Music] this is a incredible room this long library it's a 183 feet long and it contains the same equivalent as as the private side so on the private side we have seven rooms downstairs and eight up and this room if you put those bedrooms and rooms in it would be fit inside this room which so it shows you the scale of this room but it's so well proportioned you don't realize how big it is [Music] the long library runs along the west facade of blenheim so it was among the last rooms to be completed hawks more approached its design as if it were five rooms rather than one but bore in mind van bros idea that it should be a noble room of parade a 19th century equivalent of the elizabethan long gallery it is one of the treasures of blenheim you love this place don't you you love glenn my life has been looking after brennan which is a wonderful treasure as far as i could say it's not only has been an important part of our national heritage it's also a world heritage site so my family and i have got great responsibility to ensure that it is they're kept in good shape so that people from all over the world can come along and enjoy our treasures and the wonderful surroundings of there are here [Music] visitors come here for different reasons for some it's on the tour for others it's a must see on the list of england's greatest houses but for many blenheim is a link with one of the most powerful and memorable voices not of the 18th century but of our own time hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war if we can stand up to him winston spencer churchill was born here on the 30th of november 1874. the room to which they took his mother the american jenny jerome lady randolph churchill when she went into premature labor is perfectly preserved it seems hard doesn't it believe that you're clutching a simple bed on which this great statesman and your you know your great um well i was gonna say cousin but not he must have been second cousin was he with his second cousin and godfather and it's so simple it's such a simple room and it's such a simple bed and here in this great big palace with all these treasures i know but it was an extraordinary happened to be born here because he was his mother was attending a party here and uh it's the two sides of the story one that he that his mother was dancing to vigorously and brought on the child the other side of the story is that they were out in the park uh in the carriage and they were going over some rather rough ground again the baby was brought on but then the fact still remains winston churchill was born here in this room and i guess winston churchill loved every minute of the fact later on that he was actually born in blenheim i mean it was very important wasn't it to him as a child growing up and as a man yeah so he spent a lot of time here as you know and he's he once said i made two very important decisions of blenheim to be born and to be married and i'm happily content with both those decisions and he also became a godparent to you was he because it must have been a very difficult time in his life when he became a godparent to you but he had a lot of work to do he can't have been too indulgent was he as a god parent well i didn't see a lot of him as a as a young man but i was fortunate enough uh when i was age about 14 to be taken on this trip to manchester and liverpool where he was inspecting uh bomb damage and a munition factory and there's a wonderful picture of me in the churchill exhibition here uh walking with him and i've got a coat which is rather too long but as you know in those days there was a close rationing of where there's food rationing so my mother very sensibly bought this rather long coat that's a rather amusing picture winston churchill relished his connection with blenheim he spent part of his childhood here it inspired his painting and his writing he was to write the life and times of marlborough in the 1930s during his wilderness years and he was godfather to the present duke probably the first time i can really remember meeting him was in 1937 when he came here for christmas and he suddenly drew me aside and said lanterns because i was called blanton lantern then i've got something for you and believe it or not he produced this amazing watch which i treasure to this day because inside the watch there's an inscription if i can get it open yes such a fine fine it says to blanford from winston spencer churchill christmas 1937. in the gathering gloom of the late 1930s churchill's gift to the marquis of blandford was a rare moment of intimacy he had other matters on his mind made prime minister in 1940 he was denied the chance to see blenheim throughout the second world war because the palace was thought to be an easy target for german bombers but in his long life winston churchill never forgot the military prowess of his ancestors nor the words which adorned the family seat there's no doubt that they inspired his speeches which rallied the nation in the darkest days of war is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget [Music] and when the end came in 1965 there was only one destination for the mortal remains of the 20th century's greatest statesman i can see myself in front of a black and white television in january 1965 watching the funeral of winston churchill those of us who are old enough have snapshots the cranes on the river thames spying in salute as the coffin was conveyed downstream to waterloo the well-wisher standing along the railway line as the battle of britain locomotive carried him here to oxfordshire and the churchyard at bladen he lies in a simple grave within sight of the palace where he was born and which he loved [Music] the connection with the winston churchill is a powerful attraction for those who marvel at a man who was 65 at the start of the second world war 70 at its end who was never made a duke or an earl but remains in the public consciousness almost as much as he was 50 years ago it was his wish to be buried at bladen alongside his mother and father and in 1977 he was joined by his wife clementine to whom he proposed in the grounds of blenheim almost 70 years before like the first duke and sarah theirs had been a long and loving marriage [Music] when winston and clemmy became engaged in the grounds of blenheim it was a private house [Music] today its treasures are on view to tens of thousands of visitors every year but it still remains the home of the duke of marlborough who like the best of his ancestors has devoted his life to keeping the palace intact my great ancestor won the battle of branham in one day well we've been fighting the battle of branham for several years and my successors will go on having to do so but it's something that we're proud to own and we will strive with all our might to ensure that he's kept for generations for the future so that people from all over the world can come and enjoy our wonderful treasures and these beautiful surroundings [Music] there is another blenheim blenheim as the last of the visitors goes home if you can contrive to be here as the final tour recedes into the distance and there's only the sound of doors being bolted you may glimpse the blenheim that the first jew knew in the long library you may hear the eighth duke pretending to play the willis organ the voice which he left to speak within these walls in years to come when ours are still and in the great hall there may echo the rolling cadences and slightly slurred speech of another of blenheim's famous sons the british and american people will for their own safety and for the good of all work together in majesty in justice and in peace these are the faces and voices of blenheim [Music] [Music] there's a sadness about the early history of blenheim all those rouse hawks moore and van bruh resigning during construction van brewer not being given the chance to see his creation before he died and of course it wasn't completely finished when john churchill the first duke died in 1722 he just spent two summers here but by then it was becoming clear that in spite of all the feuding two of the country's greatest architects and their patron had created something remarkable and thanks to the duke's descendants this great palace has remained intact both inside and out which makes it truly one of the treasure houses of britain [Music] you

Channel: Real Royalty

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Keywords: real royalty, real royalty channel, british royalty, royalty around the world, royal history, blenheim palace, duke of marlborough, queen anne, churchill, churchill spencer, diana spencer, john spencer-churchill, british history

Id: Xl0ZZqwuQPM

Length: 42min 53sec (2573 seconds)

Published: Tue May 25 2021