The rapid rise of Marlborough to the highest position in the State was due to his singular tact and his diplomatic skill in the management of men. In an age remarkable for grace of manner and for adroitness of compliment, his courteous demeanour and the art with which he refused or granted a favour extorted the admiration of every one with whom he came in contact. Through his consideration for the welfare of his soldiers he held together for years an army drawn from every nation in Christendom. His talents may not have been profound (he possessed “an excellent plain understanding and sound judgment” is the opinion of Lord Chesterfield), but they were such as Englishmen love. Alike in planning and in executing, he took infinite pains in all points of detail. Nothing escaped his observation, and in the hottest moment of the fight the coolness of his intellect shone conspicuous. His enemies indeed affected to attribute his uniform success in the field to fortune, and they magnified his love of money by drawing up balance sheets which included every penny which he had received, but omitted the pounds which he had spent in the cause he had sincerely at heart. All that can be alleged in excuse of his attempts to serve two masters, the king whom he had deserted and the king who had received him into favour, is that not one of his associates was without sin in this respect.
The books on Marlborough are very numerous. Under his name in the catalogue of the British Museum there are 165 entries, and 44 under that of his wife. The chief works are Lediard’s, Archdeacon William Coxe’s (1818–1819), Sir Archibald Alison’s (1855), and Viscount Wolseley’s (1894) Lives, but Wolseley stops with the accession of Queen Anne; a French memoir in three volumes, 1808; Marlborough’s Letters and Despatches, edited by Sir George Murray (5 vols., 1845); and the interesting summaries of Mrs Creighton (1879) and George Saintsbury (1885). The descriptions in John Hill Burton’s Reign of Queen Anne of the battle scenes of Marlborough are from personal observation. A good account of his birthplace and country will be found in G. P. R. Pulman’s Book of the Axe District (4th ed., 1875); and for the home of the duchess the reader can refer to the History of Hertfordshire, by J. E. Cussans. A memoir of her, by one of her descendants, Mrs Arthur Colville, appeared in 1904. The pamphlets written on her conduct at court relate to matters of little interest at the present time. (W. P. C.)
MARLBOROUGH, a market town and municipal borough in
the Devizes parliamentary division of Wiltshire, England, 7534 m.
W. of London, on the Great Western and the Midland and South
Western Junction railways. Pop. (1901), 3887. It is an old-fashioned
place on the skirts of Savernake Forest, lying in a
valley of the chalk uplands known as Marlborough Downs, and
traversed by the river Kennet. It consists mainly of one broad
street, in which a majority of the houses are Jacobean; those on
the north side, which have projecting upper storeys, forming the
colonnade commended in the Diary of Samuel Pepys for 1668.
St Peter’s church, a Perpendicular building, is said to have been
the scene of the ordination of Cardinal Wolsey in 1498. The
church of Preshute, largely rebuilt, but preserving its Norman
pillars, has a curious piscina, and a black basalt font of great
size dating from 1100–1150, in which according to a very old
tradition King John was baptized. Other noteworthy buildings
are the town-hall, 16th century grammar school and Marlborough
College. This important public school was opened in 1843,
originally for the sons of clergymen, by whom alone certain
scholarships are tenable. The number of boys is about 600.
Marlborough possesses little trade other than agricultural;
but there are breweries, tanneries and roperies. The town is
governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area,
598 acres.
The antiquity of Marlborough is shown by the Castle Mound, a British earthwork, which local legend makes the grave of Merlin; and the name of Marlborough has been regarded as a corrupt form of Merlin’s Berg or Rock.
Near the site of the modern Marlborough (Merleberge, Marleberge) was originally a Roman castrum called Cunetio, and later there was a Norman fortress in which William I. established a mint. In Domesday it was royal demesne and during the following centuries figures in numerous grants generally as the dowry of queens. The castle, built under Henry I., by Roger, bishop of Salisbury, was held for Matilda against Stephen, and became a favourite residence of Henry II., Savernake being a royal deer-park. In 1267 Henry III. held his last parliament here, at which the Statute of Marlborough was passed. The castle ceased to be an important stronghold after the Wars of the Roses, but was garrisoned for Charles I. by its owners, the Seymour family. Marlborough itself, however, is mentioned by Clarendon as “the most notoriously disaffected [town] in Wiltshire,” and was captured by the royal forces in 1642, and partly burnt. At the Restoration Charles II. was received and magnificently entertained by Lord Seymour, whose mansion forms the oldest part of Marlborough College. The town was constituted a suffragan see by Henry II. Sacheverell, the politician and divine, was born here in 1674, and educated at the grammar school. In 1653 the town was nearly destroyed by fire, and it again suffered in 1679 and 1690; after which an act was passed forbidding the use of thatch. Marlborough, from its position on the Great Bath Road, was a famous coaching centre.
The first charter was granted by John in 1204, and conferred a gild merchant, together with freedom from all pleas except pleas of the Crown and from all secular exactions by sea and land. This was confirmed by subsequent sovereigns from Henry III. to Henry VIII. Later charters were obtained from Henry IV. in 1407 and from Elizabeth in 1576. The former granted some additional exemptions whilst the latter incorporated the town under the title of mayor and burgesses of Marlborough. The corporation was finally reconstructed in 1835 under the title of a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Marlborough returned two members to parliament until 1867 when the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 the representation was merged in that of the county. A yearly fair was granted by John in 1204, for eight days from August 14, and two more by Henry III. for three days from November 11 and June 29 respectively. In 1204 John also granted a weekly market on Wednesday and Saturday. In Tudor times the corn trade prospered here.
See “Victoria County History”: Wilts; James Waglen, History of Marlboro (London, 1854).
MARLBOROUGH, a city of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 28 m. W. of Boston. Pop. (1900), 13,609 (3311 were foreign-born); (1910), 14,579; it is served by the Boston & Maine and the New York New Haven & Hartford railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city, with a total area of 21.08 sq. m., lies in a fertile hilly country, and contains several ponds, including the beautiful Williams Pond, which covers 14 sq. m. A public library was established here in 1792; it was housed in a new building in 1904. Other public buildings are the city hall, the Federal building and a state armoury. There is a boarding school for girls, St Ann’s Academy (1887), under the direction of the Sisters of St Ann. The city’s importance is industrial; in 1905 its factory product was valued at $7,468,849 (an increase of 66% since 1900), of which 88.6% was the value of boots and shoes. Whether the city is named from Marlborough in Wiltshire, or, as seems more probable, because of early spellings “Marlberg” and “Marlbridge,” from the presence of marl in the neighbourhood, is uncertain. Settlers from Sudbury in 1665 took possession of a hill called by the Indians Whipsuffenicke and gradually hemmed in the Christian Indian village of Ockoocangansett (or Ognoikonguamescitt), on an adjoining hill still bearing this name. The town was incorporated in 1660. It was destroyed by Indians in March 1676, during King Philip’s war, and was abandoned for a year. Westborough was separated from it in 1717, Southborough in 1727, and a part of Berlin in 1784; parts of it were annexed to Northborough in 1807, to Bolton in 1829 and to Hudson in 1866; and it annexed parts of Framingham in 1791, and of Southborough in 1843. In 1890 it was incorporated as a city.
See S. A. Drake, History of Middlesex County, ii. 137 sqq., “Marlborough” by Rev. R. S. Griffin and E. L. Bigelow (Boston, 1880).
MARLITT, E., the pseudonym of Eugenie John (1825–1887), German novelist, who was born at Arnstadt in Thuringia, the daughter of a merchant, on the 5th of December 1825. By her musical talent she attracted the notice of the reigning princess
