29Nov2008: Day 187: Blenheim Palace

Today we went to Blenheim Palace in Oxford. I was about a 2.5 hour trip and uneventful. Once we got there we had to park in a muddy lawn parking area and walk about a quarter of a mile to get to the place. It was a very very large palace. It was given as a reward from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, who lead the battle of Blenheim to success for the English against the previously undefeated Louis XIV of France. Apparently, Louis XIV of France was an intolerant Catholic and when the throne of Spain was vacated, he placed a close relative on the throne there. If this was allowed to stand, then Louis would be in position to take over England and more. This set off the War for Spanish Succession. I'm no historian, so, here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blenheim. This battle in 1704 was a turning point for the English and signalled an end to Louis XIV's campaign.

As reward, Queen Anne setup a building project to build the Blenheim Palace. It took until 1722 for the palace to be completed. She ended up paying 240,000 pounds of the money but eventually the Duke, and his wife fell out of favor and the Queen quit paying. The Duke decided to pay another 60,000 pounds to finish the project, but apparently, he refused to pay Royal rates to the tradesmen and artisans the Queen was paying so they all left and he used his foremen and such to finish the work. Even the Architect eventually left after Sarah, the Duchess, was so aggressive with him about every detail that he finally could not put up with it any more. She was quite a strong willed woman, and quite contentious...she had over 500 lawsuits drawn against people in her life. Unfortunately, they both died without a male heir and the name Churchill was lost. The palace went to their daughters and the next Duke was a different name. The following dukes all squandered the fortune of the first Duke with poor living and sold off paintings and such. The palace is now a world heritage site and is looked after by the current Duke who still lives there, and by the government. The palace was saved by the 8th Duke and his marriage to an American. They put a lot of money into the place and fixed it up. They even purchased the largest privately owned pipe organ in Europe, which is still here and is still played.

Another interesting point of history is that the 5th Duke petitioned to the Crown to have the name Churchill surname of the first Duke re-installed and from that point they went by that name again. This name is another reason why this palace is famous because Winston Churchill was a descendant of the Duke and actually was born in the palace. He spent a lot of his youth and visited often as an adult. There was an exhibition of his letters and his military accomplishments in WWII.

When you start walking into the courtyard of the palace it surrounds you on all but one side with beautiful stonework and majestic spires and statues. The courtyard is pretty much just stone and gravel, but it is massive, probably 100 yards by 100 yards. The building takes up 7 acres. The open side of the courtyard faces a long grass areas and a lake with a column of Victory about 1/2 mile away that focuses your attention. The spire is 134 ft tall with a statue of the first Duke on the top. We didn't go there because it was too cold and too long of a walk. It is starting to get down around freezing now most nights and it was quite cold today.

When you first go in the palace through this small door in the large golden braced door you step into a huge 60 foot high room with a domed stunningly painted ceiling. There was Christmas trees there and later in the day they had a brass band playing Christmas carols which Makenna really enjoyed.

This palace had a few rooms that would rival with what we saw in the Louvre. The painted ceiling of the dining room was stunning. It took 16 months to paint and 500 pounds. Pretty low wages, but money went a much further back then! The palace also has the second longest room in England, which is the library. The library is almost 170 feet long and has several fireplaces and here is where the organ is. There was even a small chapel where the tomb of the first Duke was. It is disappointing that they didn't allow photography inside, but I'm sure Teri snuck a couple.