John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough

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John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough

John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (born June 2, 1822 at Garboldisham Hall, Norfolk , † July 4, 1883 in Berkeley Square, London ) was a British statesman and nobleman .

Live and act

Spencer-Churchill attended Eton College (1835-1838) and Oriel College at the University of Oxford .

From 1857 until his death, Spencer-Churchill, like his father George Spencer-Churchill before him , was Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire and since 1859 President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (Royal Agricultural Society). In April 1844, thanks to the influence of his father, he came to the UK House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for the Woodstock constituency , where he sat until May 1845 and then again from 1847 to 1857. In the third government of Edward Smith-Stanley (1866) was Spencer-Churchill, first Lord Steward before - only once again Derby (1867-1868) then Benjamin Disraeli (1868) - as Lord President of the Council officiated . He was also a member of the Privy Council since 1866 . In Parliament he appeared mainly as a supporter of Lord Derby, but reserved "general freedom of action" in foreign and church affairs. In 1856 Spencer-Churchill was the author of a bill that provided for a strengthening of the Church of England in urban areas by dividing up larger parishes (19 & 20 Voct. C.104). In the early 1870s, Spencer-Churchill was considered one of the Conservative Party's "most trusted leaders" and had a reputation for sympathizing over and over again with the progressive tendencies of his time. Disraeli valued him as a man of culture, intellectual comprehension, and moral energy, and judged him to be the most capable Conservative in the House of Lords after Cairns.

From 1876 to 1880 Spencer-Churchill was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland , d. H. De facto governor of Ireland. He took this office, which he had turned down in 1874, mainly to keep his third son, who had annoyed the Prince of Wales through his involvement in the Aylesford affair and whom he took with him to Ireland, from the political firing line to be able to keep out. His Ireland policy was considered undogmatic but decidedly unionist. During his tenure as Lord Lieutenant, he supported Sir Michael Hicks Beach's Irish Intermediate Education Act and other means to aid the Catholic education of the population. During the famine of 1879, Spencer-Churchill and his wife raised £ 30,000 to support the impoverished rural population with potatoes, food and clothing. In March 1880, Spencer-Churchill was the addressee of Disraeli's famous "dissolution letter" in which the prime minister warned of the dangers of the Home Rule for Ireland. After Disraeli's death in 1881, the Duke reminded the public of this warning several times and in the years that followed opposed Gladstone's policy in Ireland, which he saw as giving in to violence.

Spencer-Churchill was considered a serious, honorable, and hardworking man who had little in common with his disreputable eldest son. On his third son, Lord Randolph, he exerted a considerable influence, especially in the early stages of his political career. The success that Spencer-Churchill was able to record for himself in his efforts to restore his family was, according to a judgment of the historian Roland Quinault, bought with considerable costs: With reference to Disraeli's judgment that Spencer-Churchill "not rich for a Duke "Quinault noted that the Duke had to sell family heirlooms, bonds and even the Marlborough Jewels (1875), the Sunderland Library (1883-1883) and Buckinghamshire land (1875) - the latter to Ferdinand de Rothschild to be able to finance the "political projects" of his family.

Spencer-Churchill last appeared in the House of Commons on June 28, 1883, when he gave a speech in which he opposed the "Deceased Wife's Sister's Marriage Bill". He died shortly afterwards of angina pectoris in his London home at 29 Berkeley Square. He was buried in his family's private chapel in Blenheim .

John Spencer-Churchill was a member of the Masonic League .

family

John Winston Spencer-Churchill was the eldest son of George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough , and his wife Lady Jane Stewart. Before he inherited the rank and title of Duke of Marlborough from his father , he carried the courtesy title of Marquess of Blandford . He had two brothers and a sister.

On July 12, 1843, Spencer-Churchill married Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane, the only daughter of Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry . The marriage had eleven children, including Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of the future British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill , who was named after his grandfather.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, 138
  2. ^ Powicke & Fryde: Handbook of British Chronology. Second Edition, London, 1961, 167
  3. ↑ Lord Randolph Churchill: Churchill Freemason . In: Churchills who were Freemasons . freemasons-freemasonry / com. Retrieved July 30, 2012.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
George Spencer-Churchill Duke of Marlborough
1857-1883 		George Spencer-Churchill
John Ponsonby Lord Steward
1866-1867 		Charles Bennet
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville Lord President of the Council
1867–1868 		George Robinson
James Hamilton Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1876-1880 		Francis Cowper
personal data
SURNAME Spencer-Churchill, John, 7th Duke of Marlborough
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marlborough, John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British peer and politician, Member of the House of Commons
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH at Garboldisham Hall, Norfolk
DATE OF DEATH 4th July 1883
Place of death Blenheim Palace