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The Profligate Duke: George Spencer Churchill, Fifth Duke of Marlborough, and His Duchess
George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, brought no added glory to the dynasty founded by his illustrious forebears, John, first duke of Marlborough and his duchess, Sarah. George was foolish, extravagant and inconstant; he dissipated the family fortune and was an object of pity or scorn to his contemporaries. Yet he was a gifted man and left a legacy (albeit an ephemeral one) of originality and beauty in the gardens he created at Whiteknights and, later, at Blenheim. Born in 1766, he came of age at a time when a revolution in taste was Capability Brown and his school of 'improvers' were seeking to sweep away the formal lines of the early eighteenth-century garden and impose their vision of Elysium on the English landscape. Already a keen musician, bibliophile and collector, the Marquess of Blandford (as he then was) now turned to gardening with the same enthusiasm. Arbours and temples, fanciful bowers and rustic bridges all formed part of his grandiose schemes for the gardens of his two grand homes. Meanwhile he had married Lady Susan Stewart who was to bear him six children and prove a faithful and long-suffering wife, bearing with dignity his fruitless sorties into politics, his spendthrift ways and, for a long time, his infidelities. Twice he was to fall hopelessly in love with the second attachment was more than Susan could endure, and she left Blenheim in despair. Mary Soames brings all her wit, sympathy and eloquence to this portrait of her ancestor, and her own words blend with the astringent quips of contemporaries such as Horace Walpole and Mary Russell Mitford to bring vividly to life this corner of eighteenth-century English life.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
12 people want to read
About the author
Mary Soames
15 books10 followersMary Soames, Baroness Soames, LG, DBE, FRSL was the youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine. She was the wife of Christopher Soames.
Mary Spencer-Churchill was raised at Chartwell and educated at the Manor House at Limpsfield. She worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941 with whom she served in London, Belgium and Germany in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of Junior Commander (equivalent to Captain). She also accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met with Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin.
A successful author, Lady Soames wrote an acclaimed biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill, in 1979. She offered insights into the Churchill family to various biographers, prominently including Sir Martin Gilbert, who was the authorized biographer of Sir Winston Churchill. Additionally, she published a book of letters between Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, editing the letters as well as providing bridging material that placed the letters in personal, family, and historical context.
Lady Soames was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her public service, particularly in Rhodesia. She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2005, and was invested on 13 June at Windsor Castle.
On 31 May 2014, Lady Soames died at her home in London at the age of 91 following a short illness. Her ashes are buried next to those of her husband within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
Mary Spencer-Churchill was raised at Chartwell and educated at the Manor House at Limpsfield. She worked for the Red Cross and the Women's Voluntary Service from 1939 to 1941, and joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in 1941 with whom she served in London, Belgium and Germany in mixed anti-aircraft batteries, rising to the rank of Junior Commander (equivalent to Captain). She also accompanied her father as aide-de-camp on several of his overseas journeys, including his post-VE trip to Potsdam, where he met with Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin.
A successful author, Lady Soames wrote an acclaimed biography of her mother, Clementine Churchill, in 1979. She offered insights into the Churchill family to various biographers, prominently including Sir Martin Gilbert, who was the authorized biographer of Sir Winston Churchill. Additionally, she published a book of letters between Sir Winston and Lady Churchill, editing the letters as well as providing bridging material that placed the letters in personal, family, and historical context.
Lady Soames was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her public service, particularly in Rhodesia. She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter on 23 April 2005, and was invested on 13 June at Windsor Castle.
On 31 May 2014, Lady Soames died at her home in London at the age of 91 following a short illness. Her ashes are buried next to those of her husband within the Churchill plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
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June 4, 2012
A biography of her great, great, great grandfather and grandmother by the daughter of Winston Churchill. As Soames rightly noted in introducing her subjects, “This book is about unimportant people.” Nevertheless, the author created an interesting sketch of her ancestors and of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century milieu in which they lived. Aficionados of Churchill family history will note characteristics and enthusiasms of the fifth Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840)—such as musical ability, a love of exotic plants, and a tendency to wander beyond the confines of marriage—that show up in later generations of the family. Lovers of Blenheim will appreciate Soames’s description of palace life during the fifth duke’s tenure.
Displaying 1 of 1 review