A Short Narrative of the Life and Actions of His Grace John, D. of Marlborogh Part 1

A Short Narrative of the Life and Actions of His Grace John, D. of Marlborogh.

by Daniel Defoe.

INTRODUCTION

Opinion is a mighty matter in war, and I doubt but the French think it impossible to conquer an army that he leads, and our soldiers think the same; and how far even this step may encourage the French to play tricks with us, no man knows.

Swift's _Journal to Stella_, 1 January 1711

... the moment he leaves the service and loses the protection of the Court, such scenes will open as no victories can varnish over.

Bolingbroke's _Letters and Correspondence_, 23 January 1711

The career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, reflects the political battles of nearly thirty years of English politics. In an age when duplicity, intrigue, personality, and an immediate history of violence characterized politics, John Churchill was a constant, steady military success even while his political and personal fortunes alternately plunged and soared. His military ability insured his importance to the Grand Alliance and his victories brought the reverence of the European powers opposing Louis XIV as well as that of his own people, but, at the same time, his successes also a.s.sured his involvement with the fortunes of nearly every major English political figure and movement in the years 1688 to 1712.

Marlborough's military career spanned two periods. Aware of the danger of the "exorbitant power of France" and the corresponding danger to the Protestant religion, disgusted with James's actions at the _Gloucester_ s.h.i.+pwreck and in dealing with Scottish Protestants, Marlborough had joined the bloodless s.h.i.+ft to William of Orange. For William, he led the English forces in Flanders in 1689 and in Ireland in 1690; in 1691 he was in charge of the British forces in Europe with the rank of lieutenant-general. In January, 1692, however, Marlborough was dismissed from all of his offices for a combination of reasons, each insufficient in itself but all too typical for him--open opposition to William's Dutch dominated army, rumors that he and Sarah, his ambitious and sometimes presumptuous wife, were plotting Anne's usurpation of the throne, and dissension aroused between Anne and her sister Queen Mary by the quixotic Sarah. When rumors of a Jacobite uprising began, Marlborough spent six weeks in the Tower.

Although Marlborough was restored to political favor in 1698 partly as a placatory gesture to Anne, it was 1701 before he resumed his military career, this time as William's Commander-in-Chief and Amba.s.sador Extraordinary to the United Provinces. In this second phase of his military career, he won every battle, took every fort that he besieged, held the Grand Alliance together, broke the threatening supremacy of France, and established England as a major power. Yet, during these ten years, Queen Anne's ministry and Parliament underwent several major upheavals: the resulting s.h.i.+fts in policy and personalities alternately inconvenienced and vexed Marlborough. The year 1711 marked the culmination of warring factions and clandestine arrangement, and Daniel Defoe's _A Short Narrative of the Life and Actions of his grace, John, Duke of Marlborough_, published 20 February 1711, originated in this battle. (For discussion of authors.h.i.+p, please see Appendix.)

Much that happened in these years can be unraveled back to Harley, Earl of Oxford. His influences and circuitous dealing emerge wherever a close examination of politics is made.[1] Hiding his activities from even his closest a.s.sociates, employing spies and journalists whose purposes seem contradictory, manipulating the House of Commons'

radical October Club while preaching a "broad bottomed" moderate government, and buzzing in the Queen's ear in a variety of ways, Harley was ready for any exigency. England had wanted peace since 1709 when their insistence on "no peace without Spain" and on the x.x.xVII Article asking for guarantees of three Spanish towns had rallied the French behind the war;[2] Marlborough's pleas that peace be made and Spain be dealt with later were ignored. Although Parliament voted Malplaquet a triumph, Marlborough's power and prestige were systematically shorn away, and embarra.s.sing decisions contrived to force his resignation were effected.[3] Should Marlborough resign, a scapegoat for defeat or an unfavorable peace would be a.s.sured. By 1710, foreign policy had changed--a growing interest in trade and colonization urged Parliament to end a costly and now unnecessary war and had united the Tories, Jacobites, the Church party, as well as such diverse men as the Dukes of Argyll, Somerset, Newcastle, and Shrewsbury, a Whig. With the election of the radical Tory majority (240 new members were seated) to the Commons in 1710 and the creation of twelve new peers,[4] Harley's job of using diverse elements to form a moderate government became more complex. He found it expedient to establish and maintain influence with groups ranging from the radical Tory October Club to Swift's country squire and clergy _Examiner_ readers to moderate Whigs such as Shrewsbury. Moreover, Defoe had impressed upon him the importance of a.s.suring the nation that moderate and sensible men were at the bottom of all of the political changes.[5] Harley, therefore, prepared for at least three apparently exclusive possibilities--prosecuting the war for several more years, negotiating a peace with the Allies, or making a separate peace with France without the Allies. To keep all these possibilities alive, Harley had to remain in harmony with Marlborough. The general's popularity with the soldiers and the European powers and France's awe of his military prowess necessitated the appearance that Marlborough's command was secure. While the _Examiner_, with its Tory audience and its emphasis on pressure for peace, was essential to Harley, so were Swift's and Defoe's appeals for moderation at a time when sympathy for Marlborough was rampant and the call "no peace without Spain" was still defended even by the October Club; for the same reasons he was glad to have Bolingbroke openly a.s.sociated with the _Examiner_.

January of 1711 brought the decisive defeat at Brihuega which effectively took the issue of Spanish succession away; in the ensuing witch hunt, Almanza and the peace talks of 1709 were revived to distract the people. While these inquiries proceeded, England received word that France was ready to discuss terms. The delay between this (8 February) and France's formal proposal (2 May) was an anxious time for Harley and his schemers. Defoe was busy setting the stage for the outcome.

While Swift, the high Tory, could easily set about discrediting Marlborough, the hero and standard bearer, and, by so doing, weaken the Whig's position, Defoe's readers required different handling. His most effective writing at this time was in pamphlets which reached a wider audience and which were not bound by the consistency of the Review. Defoe and Swift, primed with the Minister's inside knowledge, set about to discredit the Whig ministry in basically the same way. In the 15 February _Examiner_, Swift wrote,

No Body, that I know of, did ever dispute the Duke of Marlborough's Courage, Conduct, or Success; they have been always unquestionable and will continue to be so, in spight of the Malice of his Enemies, or which is yet more, the Weakness of his Advocates. The Nation only wished to see him taken out of ill Hands, and put into better.

But, what is all this to the Conduct of the late Ministry, the shameful Mismanagements in Spain, or the wrong Steps in the Treaty of Peace.... [6]

Defoe remarks, "our General wants neither Conduct or Courage" and describes his greatest successes as "daughters to preserve his Memory"

while dissociating him somewhat from the Jacobites, Whigs, and "business of [making] peace and war." When the _Review_ finally discusses Marlborough's fall, Defoe suggests that the "greatest Guilt ... is the Error in Policy, and Prudence among his Friends."[7] Both writers presented the Duke as a means to an end and discredited him on personal grounds (avarice, ambition) thereby protecting the military hero and the newborn glory of England fathered by his victories.[8]

Faced with Dissenters and moderate Whig readers, Defoe's _Review_ had to seem to oppose Swift's _Examiner_ with its sneers at trade; not only must it be consistent but it was obliged to s.h.i.+ft its readers'

attention more slowly to the earlier failures of the Whig ministry and the rich commercial advantages gained in the separate peace.

The _Life of Marlborough_ is part of a stream of pamphlets which Defoe wrote supporting the Harley administration; _A Supplement to the Faults on Both Sides_, a discussion of the Sacheverell case by two "displac'd officers of state," _Rogues on Both Sides_, a study in contrasts between old and new Whigs, and old, high flyer, and new Tories, and _A Seasonable Caution to the General a.s.sembly_ were published immediately before and after. That same year, his pamphlets discuss the October Club, the Spanish succession, "Mr. Harley," and the state of religion.

By summer when the peace was nearly a.s.sured though still secret, Defoe was writing _Reasons for a Peace; Or, the War at an End_.

Taken in chronological order, Defoe's 1711 pamphlets indicate two emerging directions: first, the reasons for ending the war become more positive and entirely unconcerned with the General, and, second, Defoe's comments about the Duke become less wholeheartedly admiring, especially in _No Queen; Or, No General_. _Rogues on Both Sides_ is witty praise for moderate men who act "according to English principles of Law and Liberty regardless of People and Party" rather than believing any demagogue who "cries it rains b.u.t.ter'd Turnips." After this, the pamphlets become more informative and solemn--Defoe demonstrates Whigs and Tories want the same things and that the country bleeds to death. _Armageddon; or the Necessity of Carrying on the War_ (30 October 1711), _Reasons Why This Nation Ought to put a speedy End to this Expensive War_ (6 October), and _Reasons for a Peace: or, the War at an End_, for example, catalog the economic ailments--taxes, pirates, hard to replace sailors and soldiers killed, but far worse, a decline in trade resulting in closed shops and declining manufacturing increasing unemployment--"the whole Kingdom sold to Usury" and "Consumption of the Growth of the Country." As the year pa.s.sed, Defoe mentioned Marlborough less and less, but the General's possible mistakes were progressively forced into balance with his victories.

While seeming to be moderate, Defoe both tempers his readers' opinions of the Duke and turns their attention to other issues.

The techniques and movement in _No Queen: Or, No General_ (10 January 1712) parallel the techniques and movement in the 1711 pamphlets. In this 1712 pamphlet, Defoe's double-edged balance sheet is most obvious; in the first six pages he lists the charges against the General which he will not discuss--this reminds his readers of every possible failing and, because of the language ("I'le forbear to lessen his Glorious Character by Reckoning the Number of the Slain, or counting the Cost of the Towns"), the significance of each "ignored" charge is increased.

Defoe recounts the economic issues at stake and insists that when Marlborough's "blinded party" made him its representative, regardless of his intentions, he became a formidable threat to the Queen and had to be removed. The pamphlet gradually turns to the destructiveness of party factions and by the patriotic ending ("Alas, what a Condition were Britain in if her Fate depended upon the Life, or Gallantry, or Merit, of one Man"), Marlborough is no longer an issue.

In the _Life_, Defoe defends the general from the charge of avarice, the most plausible charge that the journalists were propagating.

Marlborough's courage and skill had also been called into question in such papers as _The Post Boy_, and a spurious debate raged which could only injure Marlborough over the grat.i.tude of the nation. Defoe alludes to pamphlets which impugn great men and represent them as "unworthy of the Favour of the Prince" slanting the charge that Marlborough had been rewarded perhaps too bountifully in order to imply that such writers were malicious, uninformed, and ungrateful. Furthermore, Defoe says, Marlborough deserved his reward, having bought it at a dear rate, and it was no more than what "in all Times belong'd to Generals." Indeed, Marlborough's successor, the Duke of Ormond, received the same bread perquisite and percentage of foreign pay, but Defoe chooses to "defend"

Marlborough not with comparable facts which would destroy the credibility of the attacking group, but rather with pa.s.sing references to the two other generals with whom he had to divide the money and with the profits of sea captains and petty clerks in yards and stores! With descriptions of the fitting appearance for generals and Marlborough's sobriety in the field, Defoe tips the scales in Marlborough's favor.

That he ends the section with

Indeed Generals, tho' the most accomplish'd Heroes, are but Men, they are not Infallible, but may be mistaken as well as other Mortals, they are subject to Faults and Infirmities as well as their Fellow-Creatures; but then their great Services for the good of their Country ought to be cast into the Ballance, against their humane Mistakes; and not only Charity, but Self-consideration should give them very good Quarter, unless their Faults are prov'd to be Wilful and Contumacious.(38)

is a paradigm of his technique. Coming immediately after this defense, the argument that his victories should be "cast in the Ballance" is somewhat degrading and implies that Marlborough may have been mistaken in what he did and even leaves the question open with the phrase "unless their Faults are prov'd Wilful and Contumacious."[9] The following paragraph, however, opens the subject of Marlborough's invincibility. Under the guise of wondering what an ungrateful nation would do should he lose a battle, Defoe brings Marlborough's perfect record, his piety, and the esteem France and his soldiers had for him to our attention. The paragraph before, then, may be taken to introduce Defoe's concern--even Marlborough could be mistaken in battle and lose, and what would such a nation do then? The paragraph on the whole reflects on the nation and is an eloquent defense of the Duke--he is human, human beings make mistakes and his great good should excuse him even more than an ordinary man's mistakes should be forgiven.

Harley knew that Marlborough was essential until peace negotiations were secured. Marlborough had distrusted Harley throughout 1710, but he also knew that Harley's stakes in a moderate government were great. In 1711, Rochester and the October Club began to challenge Harley, and their demands alarmed even Queen Anne. The Queen, Bolingbroke, and Harley all wrote Marlborough conciliatory letters. Marlborough answered in kind and his letter after Harley was stabbed expresses deep concern.

Harley became increasingly convinced that only peace would preserve his power, and Marlborough's power and reputation were essential for an acceptable peace. As late as July, Harley's letters to Marlborough are respectful and deceitfully warm:

My lord; I received from the hands of lord Mar, just as I came from Windsor, the honour of your grace's letter, and I am not willing to let a post pa.s.s, without making your grace my acknowledgments. It is most certain, that you can best judge what is fit to be proposed upon the subject you are pleased to mention....

I hope it will be needless to renew the a.s.surances to your grace, that I will not omit any thing in my power, which may testify my zeal for the public, and my particular honour and esteem for your grace; and I doubt not, but when the lord you mention comes, I shall satisfy him of the sincerity of my intentions towards your grace.[10]

Harley's perfidy allowed him to a.s.sure Marlborough he would "never do any thing which shall forfeit your good opinion" while pretending to plan to restore Marlborough to the Queen's confidence. Further, when Marlborough appealed to him to silence the libellous attacks by journalists, Harley replied, "I do a.s.sure your grace I neither know nor desire to know any of the authors; and as I heartily wish this barbarous war was at an end, I shall be very ready to take my part in suppressing them."[11] Details about the financing of Woodstock and mutual friends crop up in the letters. So successful is Harley's deception that when Sir Solomon Medina accuses Marlborough of graft, Marlborough writes Harley:

Upon my arrival here, I had notice that my name was brought before the commissioners of accounts, possibly without any design to do me a prejudice. However, to prevent any ill impression it might make, I have writ a letter to those gentlemen ... and when you have taken the pains to read the inclosed copy, pray be so kind as to employ your good offices, so as that it may be known I have the advantage of your friends.h.i.+p. No one knows better than your lords.h.i.+p the great use and expence of intelligence, and no one can better explain it; and 'tis for that reason I take the liberty to add a farther request, that you would be so kind to lay the whole, on some fitting opportunity, before the queen, being very well persuaded her majesty, who has so far approved, and so well rewarded my services would not be willing they should now be reflected on.[12]

Defoe points out that criticism of the Duke "may prove Dangerous and Fatal" and the joy in the French court at each step in Marlborough's fall reinforces Defoe's and Harley's opinion[13] Defoe recounts Marlborough's greatest military victories beginning as far back as his campaign in Brabant (reminding his readers of possible wealth gained through a s.h.i.+pwreck and of the betrayal of Dunkirk as he goes along), includes descriptions of his exemplary behavior including regular prayers for the Camp, and praises Marlborough as a "finish'd Hero." The conclusion to the pamphlet warns the nation again of Marlborough's importance; his battles are bringing the enemy to "reason," procuring "an honorable and lasting peace." References to the detrimental effect of discrediting the general are found intermittently throughout the pamphlet in allusion to Hannibal.

Defoe, then, served Harley's purposes well. He defended Marlborough and sh.o.r.ed up his prestige in a time when it was important for the French to think that Marlborough could prosecute the war freely. As a known employee of Harley's, Defoe furthered Marlborough's impression that Harley could be depended upon.[14] Finally, he began to prepare the moderate Whigs for peace by presenting the economic considerations and disa.s.sociating Marlborough from the Queen's and the ministry's "business of peace."

The possibility that Defoe acted independently in this writing cannot be discounted.[15] Defoe had praised Marlborough since the beginning of his career and the extent to which he and G.o.dolphin adopted William's policies added to Defoe's admiration; admiration is clear in this pamphlet. Defoe had worked for G.o.dolphin and Sunderland, and may have used "by an Old Officer in the Army" as a disguise from Harley or even as a means of publis.h.i.+ng independently. That Defoe resented attacks on his hero can hardly be doubted--the _Review_ and his pamphlets are a catalog of the general's triumphs, and no where does he attack unequivocably; even in _No Queen_ he puts chief blame on rumors and on Marlborough's party. Harley's failure to make permanent provisions for Defoe may suggest some dissatisfaction, but even if the possibility that the _Life_ was not expressly ordered by Harley is considered, it is noteworthy that nothing in it is offensive to Harley, and, more important, remarkable that it serves Harley's needs and ends at the time so well.

Definitely Defoe's, however, are veiled but telling attacks on Swift and his type. Although the purpose of the _Examiner_ was to "furnish Mankind, with a Weekly Antidote to that Weekly Poison,"[16] Defoe parodied this by saying his pamphlet was to "undeceive the People." The "base Pamphleteers" are labeled uninformed and ungrateful; they have no way of making right judgments in the matter of perquisites and soldier's pay; they go out to see a battlefield as they might a well laid-out garden, and, of course, their "Mouths go off smartly with a Whiff of Tobacco" (an obvious ridiculing contrast to the cannon fire of the real fighters).

Furthermore, compared to attacks on Marlborough in libels such as _The Duke of M***'s Confessions to a Jacobite Priest_, _The Land-Leviathan_: _or_, _the Modern Hydra_, and _The Perquisite Monger_, Defoe's pamphlet was exemplary in its moderation. Even Swift's attacks are moderate beside the majority of these 1711-12 pamphlets; not even he conjured up memories of regicide and rebellion as did the more numerous and libellous pamphleteers. For example, _The Mobb's Address to my Lord M***_ (1710) linked Marlborough to Sacheverell and a.s.sured the Duke his "most dutiful Mobb, will use our utmost Care and Diligence to raise all riotous and tumultous a.s.semblys, and with undaunted Vigour ... oppose ... all who will keep up the Authority of the Crown." _Oliver's Pocket Looking Gla.s.s_ (1711) while more erudite was scarcely less inflammatory--shades of Cromwell were called up, a "Colossus" with an "Army compos'd of almost all nations" faced the "body politic."

The _Life_ exemplifies many of Defoe's life long interests and opinions and points to the fiction he was to write. Virtues espoused throughout his career are praised here. Ingrat.i.tude was a deplorable but all too common failing of mankind--that Marlborough should be "undervalued and slighted" was "no new Thing, all the Histories of the World are full of Examples to this purpose" and his greatness provides but a mark at which the envious may shoot. In _Atalantis Major_ Defoe elaborates on the causes of the nation's ingrat.i.tude: the debt was too great for payment and resentment was the natural result. A second interest was the military hero; much of Defoe's fiction--_Memoirs of a Cavalier_, _Captain Singleton_, for instance--involved military men, and Marlborough along with King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, another soldier who scorned the conventional seventeenth century chess game tactics, furnished a model. The "finish'd Hero" described includes all of the virtues of Defoe's fictional leaders from Robinson Crusoe to John in _Journal of the Plague Year_ to the Cavalier--"Prudent, and Vigilant, and Temperate, Alert, and industrious, with an humble Submission to the Will of the Almighty" (26), "Temperate, Sober, Careful, Couragious, Politick, Skilful, so he is Courteous, Mild, Affable, Humble, and Condescending to People of the meanest Condition"

(45). The Duke's virtues as well as Gustavus's enable the reader of _Memoirs of a Cavalier_ and _The Memoirs of Captain George Carlton_ to judge the commanders as Defoe would have. Above all, the "a.s.sured Skill" and "daring Courage" appealed to Defoe--Robinson Crusoe's campaigns against the cannibals and in the Far East repeat the daring, risk-all quality of Ramilles. Defoe's enjoyment of marching vicariously over great battles has led biographers such as J. R. Moore to say that it was unfortunate his military genius was never used,[17] and is obvious in almost all of his fiction. So skillful are his descriptions that J. H. Burton pauses to note "the character and claims of a book (_Memoirs of Capt. George Carlton_, 1728) that has afforded him valuable instruction on the general character of the war, along with special instructions in its leading events."[18]

Defoe's _Life_ was his first biography; other "memoirs" of the Duke of Melfort (1714), Daniel Williams (1718), and Major Ramkins (1719) suggest the progression to _The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe_ (1719) and two other lives in that same year.

Defoe's sometimes troublesome skill with narrative voices is, in the _Life_, a shadow of the competence displayed in _Moll Flanders_.

Although the "old Officer's" voice is sustained and there are excellent touches, the distinctiveness and absorbing intimacy are only hinted at.

The polemist appeals too apparently to his readers while the opening pages approach a declamation. The persona protests that he doesn't "pretend in this Narrative to Inform the great People at Court, concerning this thing," and that he writes only for the common people.

Defoe does limit carefully his material to events which were common knowledge or would have been open to an old soldier--while he describes the key maneuver of Ramilles, he certainly lacks a complete overview.

Many of the virtues praised would appeal most strongly to men who might have been common foot concerned with regular bread, a well-run camp, and a conscientious strategist, or to simple, pious women glad to hear that their general prayed and provided Sunday sermons. Allusions to Satan, "the cunning engineer," Solomon, and Moses were common enough, while those to Hannibal and Raleigh had been exploited in Defoe's other writing. Perhaps the most graphic section in this voice is the description of the common soldier's misery in a rainy season march and siege. A few pa.s.sages have the confidential, gossipy tone of ordinary people around a tavern table--Sarah was admired abroad, but in her own country it was said she was "guilty of more Folly than a Retainer to the College in Moore-Fields,"[19] an experienced old general knows more coffeehouse quarterbacks, and the soldier naively speculates with relish how "my Lord" narrowly escaped being "torn in Pieces" for the rumor that he spoke words which would be "brutal from the mouth of a Porter." Naive arguments (no man would continue in so hard an undertaking from selfish motives), sincere patriotism (defense of his King and Queen and praise for a nation "with a generous Race of Warlike People" ready to risk their lives), and honest indignation at "barbarous Lies" authenticate the narrator.

Defoe's writing--fiction and non-fiction--is all of a piece. The same subjects and opinions reoccur and the techniques and style are nearly indistinguishable. Expository material alternates with narrative examples (which may in turn be followed by a paragraph or two drawing a conclusion or a "moral") in all of his writing. The primary difference is in the length of the narrative examples--in the fiction they are naturally much longer. Over the years, they become increasingly dramatic as may be seen in books such as _The Fortunate Mistress_ and _Conjugal Lewdness_. _A Short Narrative_ conforms to this structural pattern. Sentences which direct the reader's attention to this structure are common. For instance, Defoe defends Marlborough's courage with descriptions of the battle of Brabant, Ramilles, references to Hannibal, and concludes, "And thus then you see, that our General wants neither Conduct or Courage." Defoe's skill with these short, dramatic, ill.u.s.trative examples developed with the years. Defoe was always concerned with presenting a case clearly and persuasively. Clearly marked structure and "reasonable" conclusions alternate with anecdotes and reminiscences intended to hold the reader's interest and dramatize Defoe's points.[20]

Defoe's _Life of Marlborough_ serves as a kind of barometer for the age and for Defoe. A reliable if sketchy list of the Duke's military successes and the major charges raised against him at various times during his life may be matched to the struggles in the English government and on the continent. The time had nearly come for the Jacobites, whom Marlborough had offended by deserting James, and the Tories, who had long thought him a presumptuous general and a former Tory (or a lukewarm Tory as Marlborough might have thought himself) who had perverted a Tory Queen, brought the Bill of Occasional Conformity to defeat, and driven Tories out of office, to collect the debt that they felt Marlborough owed them. The biography, written in the interim between two foreign policies when so many momentous plans were proceeding backstage, mirrors the age. It is also a barometer by which Defoe's development can be measured; his journalistic involvement and employment, his non-fiction techniques as well as his progress toward the fiction are implied.

Rollins College Winter Park, Florida

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

1. Harley as a "trickster is a doctrine as deeply rooted in historical opinion as the military skill of Marlborough and the oratorical accomplishments of Bolingbroke." John Hill Burton, _A History of the Reign of Queen Anne_ (New York: Scribner & Welford, 1880), iii, p. 71.