The History of William Marshal was commissioned by his son shortly after William’s death in 1219 to celebrate the Marshal’s remarkable life; it is an authentic, contemporary voice. The manuscript was discovered in 1861 by French historian Paul Meyer. Meyer published the manuscript in its original Anglo-French in 1891 in two books. This book is a line by line translation of the first of Meyer’s books; lines 1-10152. Book 1 of the History begins in 1139 and ends in 1194. It describes the events of the Anarchy, the role of William’s father John, John’s marriages, William’s childhood, his role as a hostage at the siege of Newbury, his injury and imprisonment in Poitou where he met Eleanor of Aquitaine and his life as a knight errant. It continues with the accusation against him of an improper relationship with Margaret, wife of Henry the Young King, his exile, and return, the death of Henry the Young King, the rebellion of Richard, the future King Richard I, war with France, the death of King Henry II, and the capture of King Richard, and the rebellion of John, the future King John. It ends with the release of King Richard and the death of John Marshal.
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Paternal Family Tree: Churchill
Maternal Family Tree: Audrey Saunders 1551-1588
On 26th May 1648 [his father] Winston Churchill [aged 28] and [his mother] Elizabeth Drake [aged 26] were married.
On 26th May 1650 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough was born to [his father] Winston Churchill [aged 30] and [his mother] Elizabeth Drake [aged 28].
On 16th July 1672 [his illegitimate daughter] Barbara Fitzroy was born illegitimately to John Churchill [aged 22] and Barbara Villiers 1st Duchess of Cleveland [aged 31] at Merton College, Oxford University. She claimed the child was the King's [aged 42] but most consider her father to be John Churchill, subsequently Duke of Marlborough.
On 1st October 1678 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 28] and Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 18] were married.
In October 1679 [his daughter] Harriet Churchill died.
In October 1679 [his daughter] Harriet Churchill was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 29] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 19]. She died aged less than one years old.
On 19th July 1681 [his daughter] Henrietta Churchill 2nd Duchess of Marlborough was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 31] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 21]. She married March 1698 Francis Godolphin 2nd Earl Godolphin, son of Sidney Godolphin 1st Earl Godolphin and Margaret Blagge, and had issue.
On 3rd May 1682 the Duke of York [aged 48] and his retinue including John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 31] and George Legge 1st Baron Dartmouth [aged 35] were seen off on their journey north by King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland from Margate Roads, Kent [Map]. James was possibly travelling to Edinburgh to collect his six months pregnant wife Mary of Modena [aged 23] to ensure their child was born in England.
On 6th May 1682 The Gloucester sank during a strong gale when it struck a sandbank twenty-eight miles off Great Yarmouth, Norfolk [Map] on a journey from Portsmouth to Edinburgh. Of the estimated 330 people on board it is believed between 130 and 250 sailors and passengers perished.
The Duke of York [aged 48] [the future King James II] and John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 31] were rescued in the ship's boat.
Robert Ker 3rd Earl Roxburghe [aged 24] drowned. His son Robert [aged 5] succeeded 4th Earl Roxburghe.
John Hope of Hopetoun drowned. He gave up his seat in a lifeboat to the future King James II of England Scotland and Ireland for which his son was rewarded with an Earldom twenty-one years later when he came of age.
Richard Hill drowned.
The pilot James Ayres was blamed for the disaster. The Duke of York wished him to be hanged immediately. He was court-martialled and imprisoned.
On 27th February 1683 [his daughter] Anne Churchill Countess Sunderland was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 32] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 22]. She married before 2nd December 1700 Charles Spencer 3rd Earl of Sunderland, son of Robert Spencer 2nd Earl of Sunderland and Anne Digby Countess Sunderland, and had issue.
On 14th May 1685 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 34] was created 1st Baron Churchill of Sandridge in Hertfordshire.
Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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On 13th February 1686 [his son] John Churchill was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 35].
On 15th March 1687 [his daughter] Elizabeth Churchill Countess Bridgewater was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 36] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 26]. She married 9th February 1703 Scroop Egerton 1st Duke Bridgewater, son of John Egerton 3rd Earl Bridgewater and Jane Paulet Countess Bridgewater, and had issue.
On 26th March 1688 [his father] Winston Churchill [aged 67] died.
On 9th April 1689 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 38] was created 1st Earl of Marlborough.
On 15th July 1689 [his daughter] Mary Churchill Duchess of Montagu was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 39] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 29]. She married 1705 her third cousin John Montagu 2nd Duke Montagu, son of Ralph Montagu 1st Duke Montagu and Elizabeth Wriothesley Countess Northumberland, and had issue.
On 19th August 1690 [his son] Charles Churchill was born to John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 40] and [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 30]. He died aged one in 1692.
John Evelyn's Diary. 24th January 1692. A frosty and dry season continued; many persons die of apoplexy, more than usual. Lord Marlborough [aged 41], Lieutenant-General of the King's army in England, gentleman of the bedchamber, etc., dismissed from all his charges, military and other, for his excessive taking of bribes, covetousness, and extortion on all occasions from his inferior officers. Note, this was the Lord who was entirely advanced by King James [aged 58], and was the first who betrayed and forsook his master. He was son of [his father] Sir Winston Churchill of the Greencloth.
John Evelyn's Diary. 28th February 1692. Lord Marlborough [aged 41] having used words against the King [aged 41], and been discharged from all his great places, his wife [aged 31] was forbidden the Court, and the Princess of Denmark [aged 27] was desired by the Queen [aged 29] to dismiss her from her service; but she refusing to do so, goes away from Court to Sion house [Map]. Divers new Lords made: Sir Henry Capel [aged 53], Sir William Fermor [aged 43], etc. Change of Commissioners in the Treasury. The Parliament adjourned, not well satisfied with affairs. The business of the East India Company, which they would have reformed, let fall. The Duke of Norfolk [aged 37] does not succeed in his endeavor to be divorced.
On 22nd May 1692 [his son] Charles Churchill [aged 1] died.
In 1698 [his mother] Elizabeth Drake [aged 76] died.
In March 1698 [his son-in-law] Francis Godolphin 2nd Earl Godolphin [aged 19] and Henrietta Churchill 2nd Duchess of Marlborough [aged 16] were married. She the daughter of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 47] and Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 37]. He the son of Sidney Godolphin 1st Earl Godolphin [aged 52] and Margaret Blagge.
John Evelyn's Diary. 8th June 1698. I went to congratulate the marriage of [his son-in-law] Mr. Godolphin [aged 19] with the Earl of Marlborough's [aged 48] daughter [aged 16].
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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Before 2nd December 1700 [his son-in-law] Charles Spencer 3rd Earl of Sunderland [aged 25] and Anne Churchill Countess Sunderland [aged 17] were married. She the daughter of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 50] and Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 40]. He the son of Robert Spencer 2nd Earl of Sunderland [aged 59] and Anne Digby Countess Sunderland [aged 54].
John Evelyn's Diary. 8th December 1700. Great alterations of officers at Court, and elsewhere, - Lord Chief Justice Treby died; he was a learned man in his profession, of which we have now few, never fewer; the Chancery requiring so little skill in deep law-learning, if the practicer can talk eloquently in that Court; so that probably few care to study the law to any purpose. Lord Marlborough [aged 50] Master of the Ordnance, in place of Lord Romney [aged 59] made Groom of the Stole. The Earl of Rochester [aged 58] goes Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
In 1702 at the commencement of the War of the Spanish Succession the Allied Army commanded by John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 51] captured Venlo, Roermond, Stevensweert and Liège.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1st December 1702. After the excess of honor conferred by the Queen [aged 37] on the Earl of Marlborough [aged 52], by making him a Knight of the Garter and a Duke, for the success of but one campaign, that he should desire £5,000 a year to be settled on him by Parliament out of the Post Office, was thought a bold and unadvised request, as he had, besides his own considerable estate, above £30,000 a year in places and employments, with £50,000 at interest. He had married one daughter [aged 21] to the son [aged 24] of my Lord Treasurer Godolphin [aged 57], another [aged 19] to the Earl of Sunderland [aged 27], and a third [aged 15] to the Earl of Bridgewater [aged 21]. He is a very handsome person, well-spoken and affable, and supports his want of acquired knowledge by keeping good company.
In 1702. Michael Dahl [aged 43]. Portrait of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 51].
In December 1702 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 52] was created 1st Duke Marlborough, 1st Marquess of Blandford. [his wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 42] by marriage Duchess Marlborough.
In December 1702 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 52] was appointed 512th Knight of the Garter by Queen Anne of England Scotland and Ireland [aged 37].
John Evelyn's Diary. 1st February 1703. A famous cause at the King's Bench [Map] between Mr. Fenwick and his wife, which went for him with a great estate. The Duke of Marlborough [aged 52] lost his only son [aged 16] at Cambridge by the smallpox. A great earthquake at Rome, Italy [Map], etc. A famous young woman [aged 23], an Italian, was hired by our comedians to sing on the stage, during so many plays, for which they gave her £500; which part by her voice alone at the end of three scenes she performed with such modesty and grace, and above all with such skill, that there was never any who did anything comparable with their voices. She was to go home to the Court of the King of Prussia, and I believe carried with her out of this vain nation above £1,000, everybody coveting to hear her at their private houses.
On 9th February 1703 [his son-in-law] Scroop Egerton 1st Duke Bridgewater [aged 21] and Elizabeth Churchill Countess Bridgewater [aged 15] were married. She by marriage Countess Bridgewater. She the daughter of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 52] and Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 42]. He the son of John Egerton 3rd Earl Bridgewater and Jane Paulet Countess Bridgewater [aged 47].
On 20th February 1703 [his son] John Churchill [aged 17] died of smallpox.
In 1705 [his son-in-law] John Montagu 2nd Duke Montagu [aged 15] and Mary Churchill Duchess of Montagu [aged 15] were married. She the daughter of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 54] and Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 44]. He the son of Ralph Montagu 1st Duke Montagu [aged 66] and Elizabeth Wriothesley Countess Northumberland. They were third cousins.
John Evelyn's Diary. 9th February 1705. I went to wait on my Lord Treasurer [aged 59], where was the victorious Duke of Marlborough [aged 54], who came to me and took me by the hand with extraordinary familiarity and civility, as formerly he was used to do, without any alteration of his good-nature. He had a most rich George in a sardonyx set with diamonds of very great value; for the rest, very plain. I had not seen him for some years, and believed he might have forgotten me.
John Evelyn's Diary. 1st October 1705. Mr. Cowper [aged 40] made Lord Keeper. Observing how uncertain great officers are of continuing long in their places, he would not accept it, unless £2,000 a year were given him in reversion when he was put out, in consideration of his loss of practice. His predecessors, how little time soever they had the Seal, usually got £100,000 and made themselves Barons. A new Secretary of State. Lord Abington [aged 32], Lieutenant of the Tower, displaced, and General Churchill [aged 49], brother to the Duke of Marlborough [aged 55], put in. An indication of great unsteadiness somewhere, but thus the crafty Whig party (as called) begin to change the face of the Court, in opposition to the High Churchmen, which was another distinction of a party from the Low Churchmen. The Parliament chose one Mr. Smith, Speaker. There had never been so great an assembly of members on the first day of sitting, being more than 450. The votes both of the old, as well as the new, fell to those called Low Churchmen, contrary to all expectation.
On 12th October 1709 Anne Hamilton was born to James Hamilton Duke Hamilton, 1st Duke Brandon [aged 51] and Elizabeth Gerard Duchess Brandon [aged 29] in St James' Square. He was named after his godmother Queen Anne of England Scotland and Ireland [aged 44]. His other godparents were John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 59] and [his son-in-law] Charles Spencer 3rd Earl of Sunderland [aged 34]. He married October 1742 Anna Charlotta Maria Powell and had issue.
Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke
Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson.
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Before 24th May 1711 John Closterman [aged 51]. Portrait of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 60].
Before 24th May 1711 John Closterman [aged 51]. Portrait of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 60] known as The Triumph of the John, 1st Duke of Marlborough.
On 22nd March 1714 [his daughter] Elizabeth Churchill Countess Bridgewater [aged 27] died. She was buried at St Peter and St Paul Church, Little Gaddesden on 29th March 1714.
On 15th April 1716 [his daughter] Anne Churchill Countess Sunderland [aged 33] died.
On 16th June 1722 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough [aged 72] died at Cranbourne Lodge, Windsor. His daughter Henrietta [aged 40] succeeded 2nd Duchess Marlborough, 2nd Marchioness of Blandford, 2nd Countess of Marlborough, 2nd Baroness Churchill of Sandridge in Hertfordshire. Francis Godolphin 2nd Earl Godolphin [aged 43] by marriage Duke Marlborough.
Before 1744 Enoch "The Younger" Seeman [aged 49]. Portrait of John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough and Colonel John Armstrong.
In 1744 John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough was reburied in the Chapel of Blenheim Palace.
On 18th October 1744 [his former wife] Sarah Jennings Duchess of Marlborough [aged 84] died.
Letters of Horace Walpole. 27th July 1752. Arlington Street. To Horace Mann 1st Baronet [aged 45].
What will you say to me after a silence of two months? I should be ashamed, if I were answerable for the whole world, who will do nothing worth repeating. Newspapers have horse-races, and can invent casualties, but I can't have the confidence to stuff a letter with either. The only casualty that is of dignity enough to send you, is a great fire at Lincoln's Inn, which is likely to afford new work for the lawyers, in consequence of the number of deeds and writings it has consumed. The Duke of Kingston [aged 63] has lost many of his: he is unlucky with fires: Thoresby, his seat, was burnt a few years ago, and in it a whole room of valuable letters and manuscripts. There has been a Very considerable loss of that kind at this fire: Mr. Yorke, the Chancellor's son, had a great collection of Lord Somers's papers, many relating to the assassination plot; and by which, I am told, it appeared that the Duke of Marlborough was deep in the schemes of St. Germain's [Meaning the court of the exiled James II].
Kings Wessex: Great x 21 Grand Son of King Edmund "Ironside" I of England
Kings Gwynedd: Great x 18 Grand Son of Owain "Great" King Gwynedd
Kings Seisyllwg: Great x 24 Grand Son of Hywel "Dda aka Good" King Seisyllwg King Deheubarth
Kings Powys: Great x 19 Grand Son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn King Powys
Kings England: Great x 14 Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Kings Scotland: Great x 20 Grand Son of King Duncan I of Scotland
Kings Franks: Great x 28 Grand Son of Charles "Charlemagne aka Great" King of the Franks King Lombardy Holy Roman Emperor
Kings France: Great x 22 Grand Son of Hugh I King of the Franks
Kings Duke Aquitaine: Great x 26 Grand Son of Ranulf I Duke Aquitaine
Father: Winston Churchill 
John Churchill 1st Duke of Marlborough 14 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John Drake of Exmouth and Ashe
Great x 3 Grandfather: John "The Elder" Drake
Great x 2 Grandfather: Bernard Drake
Great x 1 Grandfather: John Drake
GrandFather: John Drake
Mother: Elizabeth Drake 13 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Philip Boteler
Great x 3 Grandfather: John Boteler 9 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandmother: Elizabeth Drury 8 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 2 Grandfather: Henry Boteler 10 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 3 Grandmother: Griselda Roche
Great x 1 Grandfather: John Boteler 1st Baron Boteler 11 x Great Grand Son of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: Richard Waller
Great x 3 Grandfather: Robert Waller
Great x 2 Grandmother: Catherine Waller
GrandMother: Helen Boteler 12 x Great Grand Daughter of King Edward I of England
Great x 4 Grandfather: John Villiers 
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Villiers of Brooksby Leicestershire
Great x 2 Grandfather: George Villiers of Brokesby
Great x 4 Grandfather: Richard Clarke
Great x 3 Grandmother: Collette Clarke
Great x 1 Grandmother: Elizabeth Villiers Baroness Boteler Brantfield
Great x 3 Grandfather: William Saunders of Harrington Northamptonshire
Great x 2 Grandmother: Audrey Saunders