Queen Anne, Court Culture and the Construction of Blenheim Palace

Abstract

Conceived both as a personal gift from Queen Anne to her most enduring favourite, the duke of Marlborough, and as a 'public monument' to the military victories attained under her aegis, Blenheim Palace has long been recognised as the most ambitious architectural embodiment of her reign. Yet in spite of her crucial role in its genesis, Anne's relationship to the palace remains obscure. Seeking to remedy this omission, this essay re-examines the major sources to show how Marlborough's complex, and increasingly conflicted, relationship with the queen and her court profoundly shaped the palace's formal development and symbolic purposes.