At Marlborough he knew John Betjeman and Louis MacNeice ; at Oxford Stephen Spender, and he also came across W. H. Auden.

Marlborough, realising the only way to ignore Dutch wishes was by the use of secrecy and guile, set out to deceive his Dutch allies by pretending to simply move his troops to the Moselle – a plan approved of by The Hague – but once there, he would slip the Dutch leash and link up with Austrian forces in southern Germany.

This force was to be augmented en route such that by the time Marlborough reached the Danube, it would number 40, 000 ( 47 battalions, 88 squadrons ).

However, Marlborough was convinced of the urgency – " I am very sensible that I take a great deal upon me ", he had earlier written to Godolphin, " but should I act otherwise, the Empire would be undone ..."

Marlborough could not attack Dillingen because of a lack of siege guns – he was unable to bring any from the Low Countries, and Baden had failed to supply any despite assurances to the contrary.

" By a series of brilliant marches Marlborough concentrated his forces on Donauwörth and, by noon 11 August, the link-up was complete.

Some Allied officers who were acquainted with the superior numbers of the enemy, and aware of their strong defensive position, ventured to remonstrate with Marlborough about the hazards of attacking ; but the Duke was resolute – " I know the danger, yet a battle is absolutely necessary, and I rely on the bravery and discipline of the troops, which will make amends for our disadvantages ".

The Allied commanders agreed that Marlborough would command 36, 000 troops and attack Tallard's force of 33, 000 on the left ( including capturing the village of Blenheim ), whilst Eugene, commanding 16, 000 men would attack the Elector and Marsin's combined forces of 23, 000 troops on the right wing ; if this attack was pressed hard the Elector and Marsin would have no troops to send to aid Tallard on their right.

However, Marlborough would have to wait until Eugene was in position before the general engagement could begin.

The last thing Tallard expected that morning was to be attacked by the Allies – deceived by intelligence gathered from prisoners taken by de Silly the previous day, and assured in their strong natural position, Tallard and his colleagues were convinced that Marlborough and Eugene were about to retreat north-eastwards towards Nördlingen.

The plan was sound if all its parts were implemented, but it allowed Marlborough to cross the Nebel without serious interference and fight the battle he had in mind.

Whilst these events around Blenheim and Lutzingen were taking place, Marlborough was preparing to cross the Nebel.

Count Horn's Dutch infantry managed to push the French back from the water's edge, but it was apparent that before Marlborough could launch his main effort against Tallard, Oberglauheim would have to be secured.

There was now a pause in the battle: Marlborough wanted to concert the attack upon the whole front, and Eugene, after his second repulse, needed time to reorganize.

With the battle still not won, Marlborough had to rebuke one of his cavalry officers who was attempting to leave the field – " Sir, you are under a mistake, the enemy lies that way ..." Now, at the Duke's command, the second Allied line under von Bulow and the Count of Ost-Friese was ordered forward, and, driving through the centre, the Allies finally put Tallard's tired horse to rout, not without cost.

Surrounded by a squadron of Hessian troops, Tallard surrendered to Lieutenant-Colonel de Boinenburg, the Prince of Hesse-Kassel's aide-de-camp, and was sent under escort to Marlborough.

During these events Marlborough was still in the saddle conducting the pursuit of the broken enemy.

" Nevertheless, although the war dragged on for years, the Battle of Blenheim was probably its most decisive victory ; Marlborough and Eugene, working indivisibly together, had saved the Habsburg Empire and thereby preserved the Grand Alliance from collapse.

Realising that France was too powerful to be forced to make peace by a single victory, however, Eugene, Marlborough and Baden met to plan their next moves.

The reluctance of his Dutch allies to see their frontiers denuded of troops for another gamble in Germany had denied Marlborough the initiative, but of far greater importance was the Margrave of Baden ’ s pronouncement that he could not join the Duke in strength for the coming offensive.

The Anglo-Dutch forces gained minor compensation for the failed Moselle campaign with the success at Elixheim and the crossing of the Lines of Brabant in the Spanish Netherlands ( Huy was also retaken on 11 July ), but a chance to bring the French to a decisive engagement had eluded Marlborough.

Far from standing on the defensive therefore – and unbeknown to Marlborough – Louis XIV was persistently goading his marshal into action.

Villeroi still believed ( on 22 May ) the Allies were a full day ’ s march away when in fact they had camped near Corswaren waiting for the Danish squadrons to catch up ; for his part, Marlborough deemed Villeroi still at Jodoigne when in reality he was now approaching the plateau of Mont St. André with the intention of pitching camp near Ramillies ( see map at right ).

The following day, at 01: 00, Marlborough dispatched Cadogan, his Quartermaster-General, with an advanced guard to reconnoitre the same dry ground that Villeroi ’ s army was now heading, country that was well known to the Duke from previous campaigns.

His tenure was not altogether successful, partly because he was deceived by his ally, the Duke of Marlborough, into a diversionary attack, and partly because Emperor Joseph I appropriated the funds necessary for George's campaign for his own use.

Aware of this, William in turn began to speak openly of his distrust of Marlborough ; the Elector of Brandenburg's envoy to London overheard the King remark that he had been treated – " so infamously by Marlborough that, had he not been king, he would have felt it necessary to challenge him to a duel.

After a brief pause, Marlborough ’ s equerry, Colonel Bringfield ( or Bingfield ), led up another of the Duke ’ s spare horses ; but while assisting him onto his mount, the unfortunate Bringfield was hit by an errant cannonball that sheared off his head.

# Barbara ( Benedicta ) Fitzroy ( 1672 – 1737 ) – She was probably the child of John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, who was another of Cleveland's many lovers, and was never acknowledged by Charles as his own daughter.

In the carriage leaving the church, Marlborough told Consuelo he loved another woman, and would never return to America, as he " despised anything that was not British ".

* The UK cedes its factory of Fort Marlborough in Bencoolen ( Bengkulu ) and all its property on the island of Sumatra to the Netherlands and will not establish another office on the island or make any treaty with its rulers.

In 1844, he became Solicitor General, but having ceased to enjoy the favor of the Duke of Marlborough, lost his seat for Woodstock and had to find another at Abingdon.

Formerly another rail route between Andover and Marlborough also followed this gap.

* Jennie Jerome married Lord Randolph Churchill ( 1849 – 1895 ), younger son of the Duke of Marlborough, and was mother to Winston Churchill and another son.

Captive breeding programs have allowed the establishment of three populations ; two in State reserves located at Idalia and Taunton National Parks, and another on a private reserve, Project Kial, located near Marlborough in the Central Queensland region.

Miles has written three other series of historical mysteries under the Marston pseudonym: one set in Restoration London ; another set in Victorian England during the 1850s against a background of the development of the railways ; and the third set during the military campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough.

* Olley v Marlborough Court Hotel ( 1949 ) another famous exclusion case

Interisland Line's Arahura ( ferry ) | Arahura in the Marlborough Sounds after crossing the Cook Strait.

Chippenham is set on a prominent crossing of the River Avon and lies between the Marlborough Downs to the east, the Cotswolds to the north and west and Salisbury Plain to the south.

Roughly half the crossing is in the open sea, Cook Strait, and the remainder in the Marlborough Sounds.

A crisis threatened the centre, but from his vantage point Marlborough was at once aware of the situation.

At its narrowest point, separate Cape Terawhiti in the North Island from Perano Head on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds.

South Acton became a busy rail center and was the division point for the Marlborough Branch Railroad.

Covering some 4, 000 km² of sounds, islands, and peninsulas, the Marlborough Sounds lie at the South Island's north-easternmost point, between Tasman Bay in the west and Cloudy Bay in the south-east.

At this point, the town issued a reply to Digby: " The King's Majesty, providing he were attended in Royal and not in war like wise, should be as welcome to that town as ever was Prince to People ; but as to delivering up the good Town of Marlborough to such a traitor as Lord Digby ... they would sooner die ".

The town is also the usual starting point for holidays to the Marlborough Sounds.

From that point the line continued on the surface to a point at current Beverley Road between Marlborough Road ( East 15th Street ) and East 16th Street, curving southeast and running on the surface between the lines of the latter streets through the Towns of Flatbush and Gravesend to Sheepshead Bay, then turning southerly to reach the beach at Brighton Beach on Coney Island in the Town of Gravesend.

The abbey tower was used by John Churchill ( later the Duke of Marlborough ) as a vantage point and battery during the Siege of Cork in 1690.

Wansdyke or Wodens Dyke, one of the largest extant entrenchments, runs west for about from a point east of Savernake, nearly as far as the Bristol Channel, and is almost unaltered for several kilometres along the Marlborough Downs.