During the War of the Spanish Succession, the Duke of Marlborough in 1709 intended to capture Ypres, at the time a major French fortress, but changed his mind due to the long time and effort it had taken him to capture Tournai and apprehension of disease spreading in his army in the poorly drained land around Ypres ( see Battle of Malplaquet ).

Realising the danger, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to alleviate the peril to Vienna by marching his forces south from Bedburg and help maintain Emperor Leopold within the Grand Alliance.

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 ).

Portrait of the Duke of Marlborough by Adriaen van der Werff ( December 1704 ) Uffizi

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

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.

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.

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 Duke of Marlborough had intended the 1705 campaign – an invasion of France through the Moselle valley – to complete the work of Blenheim and persuade King Louis XIV to make peace, but the plan had been thwarted by both friend and foe alike.

The year 1705 proved almost entirely barren for the Duke whose military disappointments were only partly compensated by efforts on the diplomatic front where, at the courts of Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Vienna, Berlin and Hanover, Marlborough sought to bolster support for the Grand Alliance and extract promises of prompt assistance for the following year ’ s campaign.

Marlborough wrote an appeal to the Duke of Württemberg, the commander of the Danish contingent – " I send you this express to request your Highness to bring forward by a double march your cavalry so as to join us at the earliest moment …" Additionally, the King in Prussia, Frederick I, had kept his troops in quarters behind the Rhine while his personal disputes with Vienna and the States-General at The Hague remained unresolved.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough ( 1650 – 1722 ) by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Also facing Ramillies Marlborough placed a powerful battery of thirty 24-pounders, dragged into position by a team of oxen ; further batteries were positioned overlooking the Petite Gheete.

On their left, on the broad plain between Taviers and Ramillies – and where Marlborough thought the decisive encounter must take place – Overkirk drew the 69 squadrons of the Dutch and Danish horse, supported by 19 battalions of Dutch infantry and two artillery pieces.

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.

Marlborough realised the great opportunity created by the early victory of Ramillies: " We now have the whole summer before us ," wrote the Duke from Brussels to Robert Harley, " and with the blessing of God I shall make the best use of it.

The dukedom was created in 1702 by Queen Anne ; John Churchill, whose wife was a favourite of the queen, had earlier been made Lord Churchill of Eyemouth in the Scottish peerage ( 1682 ), which became extinct with his death, and Earl of Marlborough ( 1689 ) by King William III.

* Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough ( 1681 – 1733 ), eldest daughter of the 1st Duke, succeeded her father by Act of Parliament ( 1706 )

Cadogan's force built 5 additional pontoon bridges to allow Marlborough to get his 100, 000-strong army across the river, until French foragers discovered the allied presence around 09: 00 AM.

A view from the summit of Mount Kaukau across Cook Strait to the Marlborough Sounds in the distance.

A relatively shallow submarine valley lies across the northern end of the Marlborough Sounds.

However, the ducal family still entertain in the state rooms, and dine on special occasions in the saloon, around the great silver centrepiece depicting the 1st Duke of Marlborough on horseback — the same piece that Consuelo Vanderbilt liked to call her cache mari because it conveniently hid her detested husband, across the table, from view.

More options are available by foot or horseback, including the Ridgeway, which runs east – west along the edge of the downs, and a byway south across the downs to Marlborough.

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

On 26 May, Marlborough reached Coblenz, where the Moselle meets the Rhine.

In any case, Marlborough had promised to return to the Netherlands if a French attack developed there, transferring his troops down the Rhine on barges at a rate of a day.

Marlborough reached Ladenburg, in the plain of the Neckar and the Rhine, and there halted for three days to rest his cavalry and allow the guns and infantry to close up.

" With Marlborough ’ s departure north, the French now transferred troops from the Moselle valley to reinforce Villeroi in Flanders, while Villars marched off to the Rhine.

With the subsequent fall of Landau on the Rhine, and Trier and Trarbach on the Moselle, Marlborough now stood as the foremost soldier of the age.

Nevertheless, major setbacks in Spain at Almanza and along the Rhine in Southern Germany, had caused Marlborough great anxiety and made the Dutch even less cooperative, vetoing the Duke's plans for any major action in the Low Countries.

She was christened at Marlborough House on 6 August 1868 by Archibald Campbell Tait, Bishop of London, and her godparents were: her paternal grandmother Queen Victoria ( for whom The Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy ), The Emperor of Russia ( for whom the Russian ambassador Philipp, Graf de Brunnow, stood proxy ), The Tsarevitch of Russia, The Prince Arthur ( her paternal uncle ), Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine ( her father's brother-in-law ), Prince George of Hesse-Cassel ( her mother's great-uncle ), her mother's sister-in-law The Queen of Greece ( for whom The Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz stood proxy ), The Dowager Queen of Denmark, The Dowager Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the Queen's cousin Princess Francis of Teck and Princess Frederick Augustus of Anhalt-Dessau.

Once the scene is set, Trevelyan skilfully builds up the tense story until it reaches its climax in the dramatic victory of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy at Blenheim.

Arapawa Island is a small island located in the Marlborough Sounds, at the north east tip of the South Island of New Zealand.

Also on 5 August, Eugene reached Höchstädt, riding that same night to meet with Marlborough at Schrobenhausen.

That same day Marlborough and Eugene carried out their own reconnaissance of the French position from the church spire at Tapfheim, and moved their combined forces to Münster – five miles ( 8 km ) from the French camp.

Marlborough quickly moved forward two brigades under the command of General Wilkes and Brigadier Rowe to secure the narrow strip of land between the Danube and the wooded Fuchsberg hill, at the Schwenningen defile.

With the French flanks busy, Marlborough could cross the Nebel and deliver the fatal blow to the French at their centre.

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.

In February 1705, Queen Anne, who had made Marlborough a Duke in 1702, granted him the Park of Woodstock and promised a sum of £ 240, 000 to build a suitable house as a gift from a grateful crown in recognition of his victory – a victory which British historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy considered one of the pivotal battles in history, writing – " Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent and those of the Romans in durability.

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.

On 11 January 1706, Marlborough finally reached London at the end of his diplomatic tour, but he had already been planning his strategy for the coming season.

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 ).

Marlborough wrote to Lord Raby, the English resident at Berlin: " If it should please God to give us victory over the enemy, the Allies will be little obliged to the King for the success.

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.

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

One account has it that the cannonball flew between the Captain-General ’ s legs before hitting the unfortunate colonel, whose torso fell at Marlborough ’ s feet – a moment subsequently depicted in a lurid set of contemporary playing cards.

The final Allied reinforcements for the cavalry contest to the south were at last in position ; Marlborough ’ s superiority on the left could no longer be denied, and his fast-moving plan took hold of the battlefield.

The Duke of Marlborough receives captured standards at Ramillies.

The 7th Duke of Marlborough was the paternal grandfather of the British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill ( who was born at Blenheim Palace on 30 November 1874 ).

In November 1267, parliament met at Marlborough.