“I believe,” she says, “there are very few in the world who do not think me very much pleased with the increase of honour the Queen gave Lord Marlborough when he commanded the army at her coming to the crown; and perhaps it is so ridiculous, at least what few people will believe, that I would not mention it but to those that I could show the original letters to. If there be any truth in a mortal, it was so uneasy to me, that when I read the letter first upon it, I let it drop out of my hand, and was for some minutes like one that had received the news of the death of one of their dear friends; I was so sorry for anything of that kind, having before all that was of any use.
“I fear you will think what I say upon the subject is affected; and therefore I must repeat again, that it is more uneasy to me for a time than can easily be believed. I do think there is no advantage but in going in at a door; and when a rule is settled, I like as well to follow five hundred as one. And the title of duke in a family where there are many sons is often a great burthen; though at that time I had myself but one, I might have had more, and the next generation a great many. To conclude, a higher title was not my feat; and if I saw you, I could convince you of it.”
Lord Godolphin, who knew her reluctance to the proffered honour, wrote to soothe her alarms, and to pacify her on the occasion. At the time that these letters were written, there was not the slightest reason to suppose that they would ever be made public; and the Countess is therefore borne out in her assertion, that the distinction came to her family, not only unsolicited but undesired.[[441]]
“I give you many thanks,” writes the Lord Treasurer, “for the favour of your letter, which I received this evening. I did easily believe Mrs. Morley’s letter would make you uneasy, but having her commands not to speak of it, I durst not say any more, than just to prepare you to submit to what I found by her she was convinced was necessary for the satisfaction of the public. I have waited upon her this evening to let her see how truly uneasy you were, and have begged of her, when she sees you, not to part till she has made you easy again, either by your submitting to please her, or by her condescending to cure your apprehensions.”[[442]]
Lord Marlborough appears to have been far less averse to the favour meditated by his gracious sovereign than his more cautious, and, in common affairs, more sagacious wife.
Nov. 4th.—“You know,” he observes, writing from the Hague, in reply to some letters in which the subject had been broached, “I am very ill at compliments, but I have a heart full of gratitude; therefore pray say all you can to the Queen for her extraordinary goodness to me. As you have let me have your thoughts as to the dukedom, you shall have mine in short, since I shall have the happiness of being with you so soon.”
He proceeded, however, to take counsel upon the occasion from the Pensionary Heinsius, a man of great sagacity, and one of his intimate and partial friends. Heinsius, across the channel, ventured to differ with the female arbiter who ruled Godolphin and Marlborough, and strongly recommended the acceptance of the high honour. He represented that it would give Marlborough greater consideration with the allied princes, and could not create jealousies, since it was bestowed wholly as a reward for the good services of the last campaign. To Marlborough’s objection that he should, until he had an estate, make a worse figure as a duke than as he was, the Pensionary replied, that “the Queen’s kindness was such, Lord Marlborough need not doubt a fortune; and that whatever was done at this time, for his fortune as well as the title, would be without envy, since all the people were pleased with what he had done.” Heinsius concluded his arguments by representing to the great general that it was not reasonable to expect in any future campaign such signal success as had accompanied the last; and he begged his lordship, for “the good of the common cause, the Queen’s service, and his own sake, that he would think this the proper time for being distinguished.”
This discussion made considerable impression on the judgment of him whom it chiefly concerned. Lord Marlborough assured the Pensionary that he would acquaint the Lord Treasurer and Lady Marlborough of the matter, and that he should be guided entirely by their decision. “I do beg of you,” he adds, addressing his wife, “that you will do me justice that it is not my vanity that makes me think what the Pensioner says is reasonable.”[[443]]
The Queen having, on the second of December, announced her intention of honouring the Earl of Marlborough with a dukedom, enhanced the obligation conferred, by sending, in ten days afterwards, a message to the House of Commons, stating that she had added to the distinction a pension of five thousand a year upon the revenue of the post-office, payable during the term of her Majesty’s natural life. She further observed, “that if it had been in her power, she would have granted the same terms in the pension as in the honour, that is, by making it permanent; and that she hoped they would think it so reasonable in this case, as to find some methods of doing it.”[[444]]
This message occasioned warm debates in the House, and an address was returned, importing that the Commons, “to their inexpressible grief,” could not comply with her Majesty’s wishes; and that they begged leave to lay before her Majesty their apprehensions of making a precedent for the alienation of the revenues of the crown, which had been so much reduced by the exorbitant grants of “the late reign.”