"I had not time to thank you for your kind congratulation on our success at Schelinberg before we had gain'd a second, and much greater victory, which I hope will soon make an end of the War..." - A 21 August 1704 autograph letter signed by John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough, Captain-General of English and allied forces in the War of the Spanish Succession, eight days after the battle of Blenheim, to Thomas Coningsby, later first Earl of Coningsby.
Camp at Sindelfingen, Germany: 21 August 1704. Letter. This 21 August 1704 autograph letter is signed by John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough and Captain-General of English and allied forces in the War of the Spanish Succession, eight days after the battle of Blenheim, from his field camp in Germany to Thomas Coningsby, later first Earl of Coningsby.
The letter is written entirely in Marlborough’s hand on the first panel of a single sheet of watermarked laid paper measuring 13.1 x 8.6 inches folded once to form four 8.6 x 6.6 inch panels. The letter is dated at the upper left “Camp at Sefelingben Aug. 21 1704” and addressed “My Lord”. The letter reads in full: “Your Lord will excuse me that I had not time to thank you for your kind congratulation on our success at Schellinberg, before we had gain’d a second, and much greater victory, which I hope will soon make an end of the War in the Country, it is a particular pleasure to me that my friends are satisfied in my endeavors to serve the Publick, and I shall be always glad of any opertunity to assure you that I am with truth.” The letter closes with the valediction “My Lord. your Lordships most obedient humbler servant” and his signature, “Marlborough”.
Condition is very good, the letter complete, the paper substantially clean, the ink still distinct. Evidenced by faint creases, the letter was subsequently folded three times horizontally and twice vertically. Two notations, plausibly those of the recipient, appear at the upper left corner and just below the date and location, respectively “Duke of Marlborough to Ld. Coningsby” and “after the Battle of Blenheim”. It is inked on the fourth and final panel in three lines “Duke of | Marlborough | Aug 1704” with an original ink stain partially extending down from the “u” in “Duke” to blot the “l” in “Marlborough”. The letter is protected within a clear, removable, archival sleeve housed within a rigid crimson cloth folder.
Sindelfingen, the location of Marlborough’s field camp where this letter was written, is a city in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, near Stuttgart, at the headwaters of the Schwippe.
In July Marlborough captured the Franco-Bavarian garrison at Schellenberg Heights. This allowed him to cross the Danube into Bavaria, where his 52,000-man force vanquished the 56,000-man Franco-Bavarian army at Blenheim on 13 August 1704. Some 30,000 French troops were killed, wounded or captured. Even the French commander, Marshal Tallard, became a prisoner. Blenheim cemented Marlborough’s place among England’s greatest generals. “For a symbolic quitrent” for the lands and incomes with which he was rewarded by Queen Anne, “Marlborough and his descendants were required to present annually to the sovereign at Windsor Castle, on the anniversary of the battle, a facsimile of the silk standard of the French royal household troops, the corps du roi, which Marlborough's troops had taken during the battle.”
The recipient of this letter, Thomas Coningsby, first Earl of Coningsby (1657-1729) was a Whig politician, and Member of the House of Commons continuously from 1679-1710. “In the latter part of William's reign Coningsby seems to have followed Godolphin in establishing connections with John Churchill, earl and later duke of Marlborough… The alliance helped maintain Coningsby’s position as a leader of the government side in the Commons following the accession of Queen Anne in 1702… Coningsby was reckoned one of the foremost ‘lord treasurer's whigs’, working for Godolphin, Anne’s lord treasurer, by managing parliamentary business.” Coningsby was forced from power in 1708 and left Parliament in 1710, but “returned from the political wilderness at the accession of George I” in 1714 “and was rewarded for his services to the whig cause on 18 June 1716 when he was created Baron Coningsby of Coningsby, Lincolnshire. He was created Earl of Coningsby in 1719. When “he published a pamphlet maligning lord chancellor Macclesfield, and as a result in January 1721 was stripped of his lieutenancies and imprisoned in the Tower of London for six months, he was visited by the Marlboroughs.” After Marlborough died in 1722, Coningsby proposed marriage to the widowed duchess on 20 November, but was rejected.
Sources: ODNB; Winston S Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times. Item #008434
Price: $4,500.00