Research Catalog

Title

The general in winter : the Marlborough-Godolphin friendship and the reign of Anne / Frances Harris.

Author

Harris, Frances

Publication

• Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2017.
• ©2017

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

vi, 387 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

The glories of the Age of Anne' - the union of England and Scotland to form 'this island of Britain', and its establishment as a European and a global power - were the achievements of two men above all: Queen Anne's captain-general, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and her Lord Treasurer, Sidney, first Earl of Godolphin, of whom it was said that each 'was the greatest of his kind that hardly any age has afforded'. Their partnership not only embodied the emerging military-fiscal state; it was also a close and lifelong friendship which fully encompassed Marlborough's beautiful and tempestuous wife Sarah. Tracing the partnership as it proved itself in a succession of victorious summer campaigns in the field and bitterly contested 'winter campaigns' at court and in parliament connects and illuminates aspects of a complex period which are often studied in isolation. But was the partnership in the end too successful, too self-contained, too mutually supportive; a dangerous concentration of power and a threat to the queen and the constitution? 'Rebellion and blood' were always undercurrents of the glories of the last Stuart reign. A troubled dynasty would come to an end with Queen Anne's life and a contested succession depended on the outcome of the European war that occupied almost the whole of her reign. This is a story of operatic intensity: of sovereignty and ambition, glory and defeat, but, above all, of love and friendship proved in the hardest use. Its intense human interest and audible voices illuminate a conflicted period which helped to determine the course of modern world.

Subjects

• Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, 1650-1722
• Great Britain > History > Anne, 1702-1714
• Godolphin, Sidney Godolphin, Earl of, 1645-1712

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-378) and index.

Call Number

JFE 17-9068

ISBN

• 9780198802440
• 0198802447

LCCN

2016960175

OCLC

974867457

Author

Harris, Frances, author.

Title

The general in winter : the Marlborough-Godolphin friendship and the reign of Anne / Frances Harris.

Publisher

Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2017.

Copyright Date

©2017

Edition

First edition.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 367-378) and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 17-9068