John Vanbrugh and the Building of Blenheim Palace

The Building of Blenheim Palace

Vanbrugh's task was to create a suitable setting for a national hero who had beaten the French. The result is a style known as English Baroque, with size and scope to awe the viewer, together with mass ornamentation and symbolism to rival the Palace of Versailles. Working with Nicholas Hawksmoor, previously Sir Christopher Wren's assistant, he started on what was to become a monument, a castle and a private house - in that order...

A Fall from Favour

Building work continued for several years, funded by the Treasury. But by 1712, Sarah's relationship with Queen Anne had soured and Marlborough was besieged by political plotting. Their fall from favour was dramatic. Treasury payments for building Blenheim Palace were stopped, leaving Vanbrugh and others with £45,000 owing to them - about £4 million today. Unsurprisingly, all construction work ceased. The Marlboroughs lived abroad in self-imposed exile for the next two years until Queen Anne died on 1st August 1714. The Marlboroughs returned the next day.

Building Starts Again

When George I came to the throne, the Treasury paid the small debts in full, plus one third of the debts over ten pounds. But that was all. No more money was forthcoming for the completion of Blenheim Palace. There was nothing else left for Marlborough to do except finish the building at his own expense, continuing to use both Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor. In 1714, Vanbrugh's was one of the first knighthoods conferred by George I, apparently at Marlborough's request.

 Building work started again in early 1716 - but with a difference. Marlborough refused to pay the rates that the Crown had previously paid. However, since many master craftsmen, such as the famous carver Grinling Gibbons, were still owed considerable sums of money by the Treasury, the inevitable result was that they refused to return. Foreman masons took over the work at the lower rates their masters had refused to accept.

Vanbrugh Leaves

By 1716, tensions between John Vanbrugh and Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, had reached breaking point. Her fierce criticism of his designs led Vanbrugh to abandon the project in anger, complaining of her “intolerable treatment.” Nicholas Hawksmoor continued to oversee the work from afar, while day-to-day supervision passed to the skilled cabinet-maker James Moore, whom the Duchess trusted implicitly.

After the Duke of Marlborough’s death in 1722, Hawksmoor returned to complete key features, including the Triumphal Arch and other outworks. Vanbrugh, however, remained in permanent disgrace; in 1725 he was denied even entry to the park when he attempted to glimpse the Palace. He died the following year.