John Closterman , 1660-1711 Portrait of General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Kg, Pc 1650 – 1722 in Armour Wearing the Lesser George

John Closterman , 1660-1711

Portrait of General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, KG, PC 1650 – 1722 in Armour wearing the Lesser George

oil on canvas

30 x 25 in. (76 x 64 cm.)

Churchill, John, first duke of Marlborough(1650–1722), army officer and politician, was born at the manor house of Ashe, near Musbury, Devon, on 26 May 1650 and baptized in the chapel of Ashe House on 2 June, the second, but first surviving, son of Sir Winston Churchill (bap. 1620, d. 1688)and Elizabeth (c.1622–1698), third daughter of Sir John Drake (d. 1636) of Ashe, and a niece of George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham. Arabella Churchill (1649–1730)was his elder sister, and he was the elder brother of Admiral George Churchill (bap. 1654, d. 1710) and General Charles Churchill (1656–1714).

Impoverished following his stalwart service of the royalist cause as a cavalry captain, Winston Churchill and his wife, Elizabeth, were living with Elizabeth's widowed mother, Eleanor, Lady Drake, in her ancestral home when John was born. During these early years the father, now unemployed, may have supplemented the early instruction that John received from a sequestered clergyman. At the Restoration in 1660 Winston Churchill began to recover his position and income. Appointed to the court of claims in 1662, he took his family with him to Dublin, where he enrolled John in the DublinFreeGrammar School. After returning to London, Winston was knighted, appointed to the royal household, and given apartments at Whitehall. About 1663 he enrolled John as a scholar at St Paul's School, and the boy studied there until officials closed the school in 1665 during the plague epidemic.

Sir Winston first found favour for his eldest daughter, Arabella, as maid of honour in the household of the duchess of York. Shortly afterwards James, duke of York, appointed John Churchill a page of honour in his household and obtained for him a commission on 14 September 1667 as an ensign in Colonel John Russell's company of the King's Own regiment, a unit later known as the Grenadier Guards. Churchill's aunt Mrs Godfrey, his mother's sister, was also a member of the duke's household, and through her the young Churchill met another distant relation, a second cousin once removed, Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, King Charles II's mistress, who in 1670 became the duchess of Cleveland.

Several biographers have asserted that about 1668 Churchill went to Tangier and possibly served there for two years as a volunteer with the earl of Peterborough'sregiment in the defence of that outpost, but no contemporary evidence has been found to support this. However, on 10 March 1670 the duke of York approvingly wrote to Admiral Sir Thomas Allin, who commanded the English squadron in the Mediterranean, that Churchill, one of the ensigns of the King's regiment sent to command the troops 'for recruit of your squadron', wished to continue with Allin'ssquadron as a supernumerary, apparently in Allin's flagship Resolution (TNA: PRO, ADM 2/1746, fol. 61). During this period Allin was involved in operations against the Algerine corsairs near Tangier. Allin returned with his flagship to England in November 1670. Shortly afterwards, on 6 February 1671, Churchill was wounded in a duel with John Fenwick in London.

In March 1671 Ensign Churchill embarked with the first company of the guards and participated in Sir Robert Holmes's unsuccessful attack on the Dutch Smyrna-bound ships anchored near the Isle of Wight. At the end of May 1672 he and his company were on board Royal Prince, the duke of York's flagship. On 28 May during the battle of Sole Bay against the Dutch fleet off Southwold, Suffolk, Churchill distinguished himself by his bravery and steadiness under fire, but no details of this are known. When Royal Prince was heavily damaged in the battle, York transferred his flag to St Michael and Churchill apparently followed him, although most of his fellow guards had r