victory by clamoring for a general peace. Louis was represented as invincible, and rising stronger from every defeat; and the prolongation of the war was alleged to be entirely owing to the selfish interests and ambition of the allied chief. These and similar accusations, loudly re-echoed by all the Tories, and sedulously poured into the royal ear by Harley and Mrs. Masham, made such an impression on the queen, that she did not offer the smallest congratulation to the duchess on the victory of Malplaquet, nor express the least satisfaction at the duke's escape from the innumerable dangers which he had incurred.*

43. Injudicious re

quest of Marl

made captain

An ill-timed and injudicious step of Marlborough at this juncture, and one of the few which can be imputed to him in his whole public career, inflamed against him the jealousy of the queen and the Tories. Per- borough to be ceiving the decline of his influence at court, and general for life. anticipating his dismissal from the command of the army at no distant period, he solicited from the queen a patent constituting him captain-general for life. In vain he was assured by the lord-chancellor that such an appointment was wholly unprecedented in English history; he persisted in laying the petition before her majesty, by whom it was of course refused. Piqued at this disappointment, he wrote an acrimonious letter to the queen, in which he reproached her with the neglect of his public services, and bitterly complained of the neglect of the duchess, and the transfer of the royal favor to Mrs. MaSo deeply did Marlborough feel this disappointment, that on leaving the Hague to return to England, he said publicly to the deputies of the States, "I am grieved that I am obliged to return to England, where my services to your republic will be turned to my disgrace."+

Marlborough was received in the most flattering manner by the people, when he landed on the 15th of November, and

*COXE, v., 115-116.

+ SWIFT, Mem. on Queen's Change of Ministry in 1710, p. 37. Coxe, V., 117, 118.

44.

His flattering

Parliament,

15th Nov.

the thanks of both houses of Parliament were

reception from tendered to him for his great and glorious servthe houses of ices. The queen declared, in her speech from the throne, that this campaign had been at least as glorious as any which had preceded it; and the chancellor, in communicating the thanks of the House of Lords, added, "This high eulogium must be looked upon as added to, and standing upon the foundation already laid in the records of this House, for preserving your memory fresh to all future times; so that your grace has also the satisfaction of seeing this everlasting monument of your glory rise every year much higher." Such was the effect produced on both houses by the presence of the duke, and the recollection of his glorious services, that liberal supplies for carrying on the war were granted by them. The Commons voted £6,000,000 for the service of the ensuing year, and on the earnest representation of Marlborough, an addition was made to the military forces. But in the midst of all these flattering appearances, the hand of destruction was already impending over Increasing jeal the British hero. It was mainly caused by the at court. greatness and invaluable nature of his services. Envy, the invariable attendant on exalted merit, had already singled him out as her victim; jealousy, the prevailing weakness of little minds, had prepared his ruin. The queen had become uneasy at the greatness of her subject. There had even been a talk of the Duke of Argyll arresting him in her name, when in command of the army. Anne lent a ready ear to an insinuation of her flatterers, especially Mrs. Masham, that she was inthralled by a single family; that Marlborough was the real sovereign of England, and that the crown was overshadowed by the field-marshal's baton. Godolphin having been violently libeled in a sermon by Dr. Sacheverell, at St. Savior's, Southwark, the doctor was impeached before the House of Lords for the offense. The government of the Tower, usually placed at the disposal of the commander-in-chief, was, to mortify Marlborough, bestowed, without consulting

45.

ousies of him

him, on Lord Rivers. At length matters came to such a pass, and the ascendency of Mrs. Masham was so evident, while her influence, was exercised in so undisguised a manner to humiliate him, that he prepared the draft of a letter of resignation of his commands to her majesty, in which, after enumerating his services, and the abuse which Mrs. Masham continued to heap on him and his relations, he concluded with saying, "I hope your majesty will either dismiss her or myself."*

strances with

Sunderland and several of the Whig leaders warmly approved of this vigorous step; but Godolphin, who 46. foresaw the total ruin of the ministry and himself His remon in the resignation of the general, had influence the queen. enough to prevent its being sent. Instead of doing so, that nobleman had a long private audience with her majesty on the subject, in which, notwithstanding the warmest professions on her part, and the strong sense she entertained of his great and lasting services, it was not difficult to perceive that a reserve as to future intentions was manifested, which indicated a loss of confidence. Marlborough declared he would be governed in the whole matter by the advice and opinion of his friends, but strongly expressed his own opinion “that all must be undone if this poison continues about the queen." Such, however, was the agony of apprehension of Godolphin at the effects of the duke's resignation, that he persuaded him to adopt a middle course, the usual resource of second-rate men in critical circumstances, but generally the most hazardous that can be adopted. This plan was to write a warm remonstrance to the queen, but without making Mrs. Masham's removal a condition of his remaining in office. In this letter, after many invectives against Mrs. Masham, and a full enumeration of his grievances, he concludes with these words: "This is only one of many mortifications that I have met

* COXE, V., 124-133.

+ Duchess of Marlborough to Maynwaring, January 18, 1710. COXE, V.,

134.

with; and as I may not have many opportunities of writing to you, let me beg of your majesty to reflect what your own people and the rest of the world must think, who have been witnesses of the love, zeal, and duty with which I have served you, when they shall see that, after all I have done, it has not been able to protect me against the malice of a bed-chamber woman. But your majesty may be assured that my zeal for you and my country is so great, that in my retirement I shall daily pray for your prosperity, and that those who serve you as faithfully as I have done may never feel the hard return I have met with."*

He determines

Masham is not

removed.

These expressions, how just soever in themselves, and natu47. ral in one whose great services had been requited to resign if Mrs. as Marlborough's had been, were not likely to make a favorable impression on the royal mind, and, accordingly, at a private audience which he had soon after of the queen, he was received in the coldest manner.† He retired, in consequence, to Blenheim, determined to resign all his commands unless Mrs. Masham was removed from the royal presence. Matters seemed so near a rupture, that the queen personally applied to several of the Tories, and even Jacobites, who had long kept aloof from court, to support her in opposition to the address expected from both houses of Parliament on the duke's resignation.

Godolphin and Somers, however, did their utmost to bend the firm general; and they so far succeeded in opposition to his better judgment, and the decided opinions of the duchess,

*

Marlborough to Queen Anne, January 19, 1710.

"On Wednesday se'nnight I waited upon the queen, in order to represent the mischief of such recommendations in the army, and before I came away I expressed all the concern for her change to me that is natural to a man that has served her so faithfully for many years, which made no impression, nor was her majesty pleased to take so much notice of me as to ask my lord-treasurer where I was upon her missing me at council. I have had several letters from him since I came here, and I can not find that her majesty has ever thought me worth naming; when my lord-treasurer once endeavored to show her the mischief that would happen, she made him no answer but a bow."-Marlborough to Lord Somers, January 21, 1710.

as to induce him to continue in office without re

48.

But is persuad

quiring the removal of Mrs. Masham from court. ed to yield, and

is seemingly reconciled to the queen.

The queen, delighted at this victory over so formidable an opponent, received him at his next audience in the most flattering manner, and with a degree of apparent regard which she had scarcely ever evinced to him in the days of his highest favor. But in the midst of these deceitful appearances his ruin was secretly resolved on; and in order to accelerate his departure from court, the queen inserted in her reply to the address of the Commons at the close of the session of Parliament, a statement of her resolution to send him immediately to Holland, as "I shall always esteem him the chief instrument of my glory and of my people's happiness." He embarked accordingly, and landed at the Brill on the 18th of March, in appearance possessing the same credit and authority as before, but in reality thwarted and opposed by a jealous and ambitious faction at home, which restrained his most important measures, and prevented him from effecting any thing in future on a level with his former glorious achievements.

49. Battle of Pul

towa, and Charles XII.

overthrow of

The year 1709 was signalized by the decisive victory of the Czar Peter over Charles XII. at Pultowa, who was totally routed and irretrievably ruined by the Muscovite forces, commanded by the Czar in person on that disastrous day. This overthrow was one of the most momentous which has occurred in modern times. Not only was a great and dreaded conqueror at once overturned, and, ere long, reduced to captivity, but a new balance of power was established in the north which has never since been shaken. Sweden was reduced to her natural rank as a third-rate power, from which she had been only raised by the extraordinary valor and military talents of a series of warlike sovereigns, who had succeeded in rendering the Scandinavian warriors, like the Macedonians of old, a race of heroes. sia, by the same event, acquired the entire ascendency over the other Baltic powers, and obtained that preponderance

Rus