The House of the Churchills:

Blenheim Palace
Esta joya del barroco inglés, regalo de la reina Ana
al primer Duque de Marlborough tras una importante
victoria bélica, ofrece una ventana al pasado glorioso
de Inglaterra y una experiencia cultural inolvidable.
Entre sus bellos jardines y rincones se encuentra el
lugar de nacimiento de Winston Churchill.
ELENA LIVORNI

DANIEL FRANCIS
Speaker (UK accent)
ACTUALIZADO A 26 DE OCTUBRE DE 2023, 09:00

Blenheim Palace is an impressive and ornate country estate in

South East England that dates back to the early 1700s.
England boasts many large country homes, but Blenheim stands
out among them for a variety of reasons, not least because it was
the birthplace of former prime minister, Winston Churchill.
Blenheim, one of the only historic homes in the UK to be named a
UNESCO World Heritage site, is opulent and imposing. It is built
in the short-lived English Baroque style and as such is an
architectural rarity in England.

WHAT’S IN A NAME
The palace takes its name from a town in southern Germany that
was the site of a famous battle during the War of the Spanish
Succession. This Europe-wide conflict in the early 1700s was
provoked by the death of Spanish king Charles II, who left no
direct heirs to rule the Spanish Empire. A struggle for
control ensued between European powers: France, Austria, the
Netherlands and Great Britain. John Churchill, 1st Duke of
Marlborough, secured victory for the English crown at the Battle of
Blenheim in 1704. To thank him, Queen Anne presented him with
a plot of land and the financial support to build the country home
that would eventually become Blenheim Palace.

AN ANNUAL FLAG
Blenheim Palace is called a palace because of its origin as a gift
from the Crown and it is the only non-royal palace in England. But
the gift was not without strings attached: every year the Dukes
of Marlborough are required to pay a ceremonial ‘rent’ to the
Crown on the anniversary of the battle, by presenting a replica of
the captured French standard, the French flag at the time, in
commemoration of the triumph. The palace is filled with
references to the Battle of Blenheim, from frescoes on the ceiling
to the cannons built into the archways.

OUT OF FAVOUR
The construction of the palace took place over the course of many
years, from 1704 to 1722. Funds from the Crown came and went,
as the Duke and his wife Sarah Churchill rose and fell from royal
favour. The duchess was a childhood friend of Queen Anne and
the two had a fraught and tumultuous relationship. Eventually,
they fell out so badly that all funding was stopped.
HARD TIMES
Years later, in the late 19th century, the Dukes of Marlborough fell
upon hard times and risked the loss of Blenheim Palace. Like
many other European landed noble families of the time, they
looked to arranged marriages to revive their fortunes. Charles
Spencer Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough, married Consuelo
Vanderbilt, the daughter of the American railroad
tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt. It was not a love match, and it
ended in an annulment. However, Consuelo’s
generous dowry enabled the duke to restore Blenheim Palace.
During the First World War, Blenheim was adapted to house the
Women’s Land Army, a civilian organisation set up in 1917 to
bring women into work in agriculture, replacing men who were
fighting in the war.

BLENHEIM TODAY
Blenheim Palace opened to the public in 1950, and while Charles
James Spencer-Churchill, 12th Duke of Marlborough, still lives in
a private area of the palace, both the grounds and certain areas of
the palace are open for public tours. The palace strives to be a
prominent member of the local community by hosting many local
businesses, offering activities for families and affordable annual
passes for local residents.
 THE FAVOURITE
In her memoirs, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of
Marlborough, hinted at the existence of scandalous intimate
letters shared between herself and Queen Anne. These letters
and the fraught friendship between the two women has been
the subject of many biographies, and in 2018 it was portrayed
(in a fictionalised form) in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-
nominated film The Favourite, starring Olivia Colman as
Queen Anne, Rachel Weisz as Sarah Churchill, and Emma
Stone as the intrusive new favourite

GLOSSARY
ornate: muy decorado
to boast: presumir
not least: en particular
world heritage site: patrimonio mundial
short-lived: efímero
to ensue: seguir
to present: regalar
plot: parcela, terreno
without strings attached: sin condiciones
archways: arcadas
fraught: tensa
to fall out: pelearse, reñir
railroad tycoon: magnate ferroviario
dowry: dote
to strive: esforzarse
to hint: insinuar
Magnificent and Magical: Blenheim
Palace
Situado en el corazón de Woodstock, Oxfordshire, el
Palacio de Blenheim es un testimonio vivo del
esplendor de la arquitectura barroca inglesa. Emily
Spencer, responsable de la organización de las
actividades, desvela los secretos del palacio,
invitando al público a participar en su historia.
ELENA LIVORNI

DANIEL FRANCIS
Speaker (UK accent)

Located in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, the 18th-century country

house Blenheim Palace is a masterpiece of English Baroque
architecture. The birthplace of Winston Churchill, it is one of the
largest of its kind in England and, despite its name, is the only
palace in England not directly associated with the Royal Family.
Today, palace, park and gardens are all open to the public. The
two-thousand-acre park includes formal gardens and pleasure
grounds with their delightful winding pathways, temples and
cascades. To find out more, Speak Up took a tour with Emily
Spencer, Head of Operations at Blenheim Palace. As she
explained, the formal gardens were created by Henry Wise, and
simultaneously Lancelot “Capability” Brown landscaped the park
in a natural English style innovative for the time.
 AGE FOTOSTOCK

Emily Spencer (English accent): So the main area of of the

palace is about two thousand acres. So there’s a lot of wider
parkland, and the finest view in England, that is what was
created. Which is incredible and and that is something that all our
guests enjoy — we’ve actually got three temples dotted around
the formal gardens… We’ve got a secret garden that was set up
by one of the former Dukes as a private garden and now it’s
available for our guests to come and explore. And actually that
garden, we’ve recently done quite a lot of work in to really restore
it back to its absolute glory. It’s absolutely beautiful… It’s sort of
[a] secluded garden that you come across and then you’r e sort
of lost amongst ponds and pathways and it’s… it’s really quite
magical. And of course at the bottom of our formal gardens we’ve
also got our cascades, so where the lakes feed down to
the watercourse at the very bottom and there’s a beautiful
gushing cascade.

CHURCHILL’S LEGACY
In 1908, Winston Churchill took his future wife Clementine Hozier
on a walk through the Rose Garden at Blenheim. Caught in a rain
shower, they sheltered in the Temple of Diana, where Churchill
proposed to her. Theirs was an affectionate if intense marriage,
as Churchill was British prime minister during World War Two.
The temple and the Rose Garden can still be visited today, along
with a small memorial area dedicated to Churchill.
Emily Spencer: In 1874, and it was really during
a gathering and a bit of a party, Winston Churchill was born, as a
bit of a surprise almost. It wasn’t exactly planned, but they were
regular guests to the palace. Born here in one of our rooms that
you can visit today. So he visited regularly as a child. Of course
he then came and proposed to his wife Clementine Churchill. That
proposal happened here at Blenheim in our temple of Diana. And
of course he’s buried today in Blaydon, the village that is next to
our land. So he had that connection all the way through, from
birth, right through to his death in 1965.

ON SCREEN
Blenheim has worn many different hats. During World War
Two, the British government commissioned many country
estates for the war effort, and Blenheim was the site of one of the
sections of the British Intelligence Service, MI5. Spencer explains
that the palace has also provided a backdrop for movies and
series in a wide range of genres.
Emily Spencer: During the Second World War, we had MI5
based here for a period of time. In more recent years we were one
of the sites for James Bond’s Spectre. So we’ve had James Bond
here, we have had Mission Impossible film with us. We have had
the BFG… All manner of different things. Quite recently, and
people might be seeing us currently on Netflix, in Queen
Charlotte.

RE-ESTABLISHING LINKS
For years, English country estates were the lifeblood of the
surrounding towns, economically speaking. It was very common
for estates to provide local employment, land for agriculture and
general financial support. Throughout the 20th century, social
orders were overturned and many such estates fell into
disrepair or were even destroyed. In the 1980s, cultural
associations began to try to preserve some of these estates,
among them Blenheim Palace, and re-establish their relevance to
wider society. Spencer talks about how this mission plays
out today.
Emily Spencer: We recognise [that], as an estate, we have to
work and we want to work with all the communities around us. It’s
really important… that’s always been the case and we want to
ensure we do that in the most modern way possible. So if you live
in Woodstock or Bladen, which both connect to the wider
boundaries of Blenheim, you get a complementary walking pass.
So you can walk the grounds. You can go from one village to the
other. You can use the grounds for your exercise. We want to
make sure that we make that all available. We have schools
within the local area who we give free workshops to. So we give
free entry to the schools.

A LIVING LANDMARK
Blenheim’s staff is committed to the palace being a pillar in the
community that is welcoming and accessible, as well as grand
and historic.
Emily Spencer: It’s been designed to have an impact and to
make you feel, I suppose, the magnificence of it. But we
recognise that, and to balance that we want to make it very
friendly. So it shouldn’t be a scary experience, it has to be awe-
inspiring yes, but actually you want it to be a welcoming
experience. And we want it to be memorable for all the right
reasons.

GLOSSARY

despite: a pesar
winding pathways: senderos serpenteantes
dotted: desperdigados
secluded: recóndito
ponds: estanques
watercourse: corriente, cauce
rain shower: aguacero
to shelter: refugiarse
gathering: celebración
to bury: enterrar
to commission: encargar
backdrop: trasfondo
lifeblood: alma, vida
to overturn: dar la vuelta
fell into disrepair: estar descuidado
to play out: desarrollarse
awe-inspiring: impresionante