Blenheim Palace - Inside Winston Churchill’s Ancestral Home

Here in the heart of the Oxfordshire countryside there is a World Heritage Site, one of Europe's most stunning buildings. It's the only non-royal, non-episcopal building in England to be called a palace, and its name is justified. Look at that, Blenheim Palace, one of the most stunning sites anywhere in the UK. It was built by John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, in a celebration for the stunning series of victories he won over Louis XIV's France. It's a brilliant surviving example of English Baroque architecture, and it's been home to the same family, the Churchill family, for 300 years since their ancestor built it. It's also the birthplace of one of John Churchill's more famous, more remarkable descendants, Winston. In this film I'm going to take you on an exclusive tour of this magnificent building, the spectacular architecture and the sumptuous interiors. We'll see the treasures of the private archive, and learn more about Blenheim's most famous son. But our tour starts with the woman without whom there would be no Blenheim Palace at all. Queen Anne is central to this property and to this family. It was under her auspices, as it says, that John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, won all his great victories. His wife was a favourite of hers, well they had a tempestuous relationship, but at times she was a favourite, and it was because of his wife's relationship that he was able to cement himself in control of her armies. And this property is the result. And this is one of the most magnificent rooms. It was a gallery, it was for paintings initially. You'd take your walks in here on rainy days, and you'd look up at all the paintings on the wall today. You've got various relatives, various royal family members up there. But it's also a library now, 10,000 volumes. And I would just love to come in here and explore all these volumes, as long as someone didn't start playing the organ at the end. I'm quite sure that's doing a library. The interior of the palace is just extraordinarily opulent, it is literally palatial. I mean just look at this room here, beautiful 24 karat gold leaf ceiling, and the paintings on the walls of members of the Churchill, Spencer Churchill family through the ages, painted by some of the finest artists in British life, like Reynolds. Behind me here, this is an important one, we've got Sarah Churchill. She's the reason we're all here. She was the first Duchess, she was the confidante of Queen Anne, she sort of shored up John Churchill's position at court while he was overseas fighting for Queen and country. They were the premier political power couple of late Stuart England. And he's up there in his military uniform, and the combination of his military skill and her political mouse at court ensured the birth of this dynasty that would go on for generations. This room's great because this room is all about the first Duke. There he is on the wall there, and now we explore the first Duke as a great military commander, arguably Britain's greatest ever general. These are huge tapestries that he had commissioned. They were made in the European hotspot for tapestries, for needlework, in the low countries around Brussels, what we now think of as Belgium, and they were very very accurate. He was determined that they would accurately reflect his campaigns, and the faces and the individuals portrayed are as they were on the battlefields. This is the most famous of the vast tapestries. This is the Battle of Blenheim. Blenheim was his most famous victory, hence Blenheim Palace. It's a place in southern Germany. It's hugely remote. All the great British victories in history, if you think about it, they're all quite near the coast. The British don't tend to like going too far away from their naval lifeline, but Marlborough led his men deep into the heart of Germany, and he fought a big coalition battle against the French. Here we see his allies. Those are all individual allied commanders, Germans from the low countries elsewhere, and then there's Blenheim. There's the Danube running through the valley, the church, Steeple, famous on the battlefield as a landmark, and then we have the surrender of the French commander, the French marshal. The French always wore white, surrendering. Marlborough receiving the surrender, holding his field marshal's baton. I look down here in the corner, I love this, I love the detail in these early 18th century uniforms in its own right. This is a great historical resource, and he is holding a captured standard belonging to Louis XIV. You can see the fleur-de-lis, the white standard of the of the French royal army. So this is a gigantic celebration of the apotheosis of Marlborough's career, and it hangs here in the house that he built with the spoils of that victory. This is just a glorious room, there's nothing quite like it. It's the saloon, it's now the dining room where they eat, it's the sort of main reception room. It's painted, the murals on every wall and ceiling, painted showing the peoples of the world at peace after the war of Spanish succession. It's a giant global war that was fighting in India and North America and Europe, fighting all over the place to restrain Louis XIV. Louis XIV wanted to put his grandson on the throne of Spain, the vacant throne of Spain, so he'd been frustrated in that aim, and now the peoples of the world could live in harmony. Thank you to the Duke of Marlborough and his victories. And remarkably, the artist has included himself. He's done a selfie, there he is, his name is Louis Laguerre. Even more bizarrely, he's a Frenchman. His name means war, and he's painted this gigantic celebration of peace. And finally, most strangely of all, he's actually Louis XIV's godson. Now whether that shows how enlightened the First Duke was, bringing his former enemies into this celebration of peace, I don't know. It could be that he was just rubbing their nose in it. One of my favourite objects in this palace, in fact it's one of my favourite objects of all time, I love this. This is the Blenheim Dispatch. Now it was written by the on the battlefield at Blenheim, in a hurry. Look at it, you can see how scruffy his writing is, and we know it was in a hurry, particularly because it was written on the back of a bill from a tavern for the previous night's meal. You can see that it's in French, a bit of meat, a couple of candles, some bread. So someone's given him this scrap of paper and he's written in a rush to his right. Look, August the 13th, 1704, I have not time to say more but beg you will give my duty to the Queen and let her know that army has had a glorious victory. Marshal Tallard and two other generals are in my coach and I'm following up the rest, i.e. the French commander is sitting in his coach. That is a pretty comprehensive victory. And I just love the fact that news of such strategic importance was on the back of a bar bill. This victory that he was so proud of was a very important victory, it proved decisive and it was the reason that Queen Anne, his sovereign, gave him this land that had been royal hunting land for centuries and the money to build this gigantic palace. In return she asked simply for one thing, that every year a standard be delivered to her and her successors with the French fleur-de-lis on it. And to this day, for the last 300 years, the Dukes of Marlborough every single year have been delivering that to Windsor at the appointed time. George VI in 1946 gave one of the standards back so it could be displayed here at Blenheim so visitors would understand the process. And I hope they've got their calendar alerts set to annual because if the family do ever forget the Queen's having this place back. The building of Blenheim was far from smooth. Construction began in 1705 but a few years later the Queen and the Duchess fell out. The Marlboroughs had to flee into exile and work on the palace stock. It wasn't finished until the 1730s but the result was magnificent. It's just built on such a grand scale. It's gigantic. In fact it feels more like an Oxford College and that's partly because it's made from the same beautiful golden stone of the Cotswolds. And the architects who worked on it are some of the foremost architects in British history. Vanbrugh led, ably assisted by Hawksmoor. The current Duke's family, direct descendant of that first Duke, live in that apartment over there. And taken as a whole it is still the biggest private residence in the country. Well all that gold leaf and those paintings are fine as far as they go but everyone knows, well history geeks like me know, the real action is in the archives. That's where the treasures are and I'm off now to meet Dr Alexa Frost and she's going to show me some of the best things in the collection. Hi there. Hi. How are you doing? Good. Thank you. So you've got some stuff to show me? I have, yes. Ah, what's this? Let's come over here. The commonplace book. Yeah. Isn't that great fun? I must admit this is my favourite item in the archives. It was written by the first Duchess of Marlborough, Sarah. The first? The great woman herself. I know and we don't have much of her material here. It's her commonplace book. So it's her journal and she writes about her views on life, love and the universe, quoting philosophers and mentioning her opinions in relation to that. Has this never been transcribed and published? We have got a transcription but it has never been formally published, no. That's it because she's one of the pre-eminent political figures of her generation. Is that just of sexism? Has she been overlooked? Why is that? It could be a combination of those things. It's one of the fascinating things about private archives. And so this is the book, this has not been stuck in. I mean this is the book in which she wrote. Yes. She sat there scribbling away. And scribbling is probably an excellent definition of that. Yes, I'm glad you're trying. We do have a transcription. We can see the word gods there. Do we learn things about the politics of late Stuart England in this or is this sort of personal? I think it's a combination of both. In it she discusses her relationship with family and friends that she'd fallen out with over the years, indirectly, which she did. But I think the way that she phrases it in this book is she defends herself by saying a true friend is somebody who cares for you enough to speak your mind. And then she will back that up with philosophical philosophical evidence without directing it at a particular individual. And so this is a this is a treasure. I mean this is one of the most famous people in the early 18th century and you've got this gigantic sort of, you've got access to her mind. Yes, yes, it's an enormous privilege. Right, what's next? Next I have a rather lovely item here that was produced in 1878 which was an address to the seventh duchess of Marlborough, Winston Churchill's grandmama. It was produced in 1878 by the children of the industrial school in Cork. When she spent time in Ireland with her husband she was dedicated to setting up a fund to help poverty through the potato and famine plight. And we've got a collection of these beautiful addresses which as you can see there's so much detail that the the children and the teachers have worked on as a as a thank you. And I think it creates quite a lovely message. The images you're seeing the children kind of working on the roof and but there's you know little girls still with a welcome sign and and there's flowers and it's almost telling the story how you're working on the bottom with the thorns that develop into flowers at the top. So I think when they start may it please your grace then I think I think that she would be pleased with. You don't think of the British aristocracy as being a very popular island so that's an interesting... Yeah she made an enormous difference and raised a lot of money. What's next? Finally here I've got a 1772 map of the manor of Woodstock. And that's where we are now is it? Which is where we are now and this was created by the surveyor Thomas Pride. And we have a look inside. Look how beautiful that is. Look at the colours. I love that. And this is the manor of Woodstock is detailed here which are now sort of villages. You've got the palace here and Coombe, Woodstock itself, Old Woodstock, Leyden. But I think it's the the colours are so vibrant. That's just gorgeous isn't it? I'm sure the Duke enjoyed looking out on all those domains. Absolutely must be quite satisfying. I mean is it is it stupid to ask how many sort of objects are in the archive? Actually do you know I don't know. I know that there are 30,000 items catalogued. 30,000? And I reckon that that's what 60% of the archives. And so there's whole boxes of letters and farm receipts and things that have just never been kept. Yeah really exciting. So as you're walking around the room we've got a number of of boxes that are yet to be explored. That's the dream of all archivists. Exactly, exactly. It's a new adventure every day. So people go to the palace and look for all the treasures in there but the real treasures in this room. Absolutely yes, yes they are. It was wonderful to see that unique book belonging to Sarah Churchill. The recent Oscar-winning film The Favourite has made her once again a public figure. But there's one Blenheim resident whose fame outshines all others. Blenheim tour guide Peter Gill is going to tell me his story. Hello, welcome Dan. Thank you Peter. Thank you Peter. Nice to see you. We're talking about the uh illustrious man who was born. How come he was born here? Well his parents actually lived in London. He should have been born there but he had other ideas. He was a very impatient man so his parents were visiting here in the weekend in November 1874 and he decided to arrive in the world a few weeks earlier than planned. So he later said I chose to be born in Blenheim Palace. I don't think he had much choice really. And they weren't just they weren't just guests. I mean they were they were part of the family. Yes they were, yes. His grandfather if you look at the chart here was the seventh duke of Marlborough and they had a number of sons and daughters. The eldest son George became the eighth duke on the death of his father but the younger son is Randolph Churchill and that's the father of Winston and he married this American lady from New York Jenny Jerome. So Winston Churchill is in fact half American by birth. Half American? Yes. Born in the ancestral home and that remained very important to him didn't it? It did indeed. He loved this place and very much regarded it as his ancestral home. It wasn't his actual home just the fact that he was born here in fact. So this is his saddle? This is his baby saddle yes. I think he learned to ride his pony Rob Roy here all around the palace grounds because he spent a lot of his school holidays here. His parents were rather dysfunctional really. They didn't come to see him. They didn't look after him in the holidays too much so he was here with his grandmother and he learned to ride all around Blenheim Palace on Rob Roy his pony. And he used to have endless toy soldiers endlessly playing battles? He loved toy soldiers yes. He could have been a military man quite easily could have had his military career but he chose to be a politician of course. And when he was playing soldiers of France he was usually in charge? Absolutely yes. He used to play a game with his cousin the ninth duke and the game was sort of fighting the French if you like and he was always head of the English army. He was the general and his cousin was the enemy and he always won. That was one of the rules and he was always the boss if you like. It's typical Winston. It's very typical. So Dan we're going into the room where Winston Churchill was born on the 30th of November 1874 and you'll see here some examples of his paintings. Look at them. They're beautiful aren't they? Yes he came to Blenheim Palace. He painted a number of paintings inside the palace as well as in the gardens. Again emphasising how much he was influenced by Blenheim Palace, how much he loved it, regarded it very much as his actual ancestral home. And this is the bed he was born in and on the end of the bed you can see there his curls cut off at about the age of four or five. So up to that stage he had had long curls and dressed as a girl would you believe? And then he was breached which means he had breeches put on him and dressed as a boy. Because up to that stage they were just known as children. They weren't sort of boys and girls, they were children. His mother comes here for a sociable weekend and she ends up going through labour and having this boy. And I think the fact that he was born in this palace in the heart of his ancestral home, it gave him that sense of he thought he was part of something pretty big. It didn't come as a surprise to him when he was Prime Minister did it? Not really. It's all part of his destiny I think. He loved it, he loved it. His parents were actually here for the weekend attending a ball in the Long Library and so you can see they were rushed up the corridor and Jenny Jerome, his mother, was put into bed here and a few hours later Winston Churchill was born here. Very proud of that. And is this his actual easel? A lovely painting there and his actual easel on one of them. He had several of these. He spent a lot of time painting here in France, in Morocco etc. Astonishing. He's a very accomplished artist exhibiting in the Royal Academy. Beautiful paintings, some of them. The story began in this room that would take him all over the world. I mean he was one of the dominant figures of the 20th century. He was indeed, he was indeed. And never lost the influence of Brennan Palace. I think that's most important. And that chose to be buried of course within sight of it. So it just shows how much this did influence him. But this is where it all started in 1874 on the 30th of November. Astonishing chapel here at Brennan Palace. We have Winston Churchill's father here, his grandfather here. And this is the chapel in which Winston Churchill was christened as a baby. But when you're in here you're left in no doubt. Winston Churchill is but a footnote. The real person that you're here to celebrate, to remember in this room is the first Duke. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. Even the altar has been shifted to one side so the people in the pews, the worshippers, frankly worship his monument, his memorial instead of the altar. There he is with his wife Sarah looking adoringly up at him. And his two sons, his daughters, don't get a look which is ironic given the importance of the female line and the women in the story of this dynasty. And there are scenes from his military career carved out at the base there. You are left in no doubt when you visit Brennan Palace and when you visit this chapel that this is a gigantic shrine to all the most important military and political figures in British history. So Blenheim is now a unique mixture of memorial, family home and national treasure as well as being the birthplace of one of the greatest Britons of all time. Winston Churchill obviously went through life carrying Blenheim close to his heart and now, thanks to Winston Churchill, we carry it in our pocket. This is the five pound note and on it we have Winston Churchill who regularly tops polls as the most successful, respected Briton of all time. And there in the corner, just above and to the right of the great man himself, is a little reference to Blenheim.