CHURCHILL, GEORGE SPENCER, FIFTH DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH
Arms.—Impaled.
Dexter: Quarterly.
1st and 4th sa., a lion rampant arg., on a canton of the last a cross gu. Churchill.
2nd and 3rd quarterly, arg. and gu., in the second and third quarters a fret or; over all on a bend sa., 3 escallops of the first. Spencer.
Sinister: Or, a bend sa.; over all a lion rampant gu. Abernethy (?).
Coronet.—That of a Duke.
Motto.—Fiel pero desdichado.
The whole arms are borne upon an Imperial eagle, the heraldic indication of the rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, a dignity given to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. The eagle is ensigned with a closed crown, the circlet of which bears the strawberry leaves and pearls of an English Marquis.
[Ferrarotto. Della preeminenza dell' officio di Stradicò della nobile città di Messina. Venetiis, 1593.]
Variety.—Used as Marquis of Blandford before 1817. Spencer.
Arms.—Quarterly.
1st and 4th quarterly, arg. and gu., on the second and third quarters a fret or; over all on a bend sa., 3 escallops of the first. Spencer.
2nd and 3rd sa., a lion rampant arg., on a canton of the last a cross gu. Churchill.
Coronet.—That of a Marquis.
Motto.—Dieu defend le droit.
The whole arms are borne upon an Imperial eagle as before, but in this case the whole is ensigned with a Royal orb between the two horns of a crescent arg., issuing from a Marquis's coronet.
[Colonna. Discours du Songe de Poliphile. Paris, 1654.]
George Spencer, afterwards Spencer-Churchill (born 6th March 1766, died 5th March 1840), was the son of George, fourth Duke of Marlborough. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, and served as Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire and for Tregony, and was a Lord of the Treasury. He married Susan, daughter of the Earl of Galloway.
In 1817, on the death of his father, he succeeded to the Dukedom of Marlborough, and in the same year he assumed by Royal Licence the surname and arms of Churchill in addition to his patronymic of Spencer. This was done in memory of the first Duke of Marlborough, who left no male heir, but whose second daughter Anne had married Charles Spencer, third Earl of Sunderland, and their son Charles, fifth Earl of Sunderland, succeeded his aunt Henrietta, suo jure Duchess of Marlborough, in the Dukedom in 1733. While Marquis of Blandford the Duke collected a magnificent library at his house, White Knights, near Reading, but extravagance in living compelled him to part with it by auction in 1819.
