Courting Her Highness_ The Story of Queen Anne - Jean Plaidy [49]
“I have always liked Sidney Godolphin.…”
“Then that little matter is settled. He shall be informed. Now I am going to tell you about the trouble I am having with my son. The boy has dared challenge my plans for his future. What do you think of that.”
“That is a little wicked of the young man, Mrs. Freeman.”
“He would join the Army without delay, if you please. He would leave Cambridge forthwith when I have decided he shall stay there.”
“He is eager to be a soldier … just like my boy. I can see him now, dear Mrs. Freeman, drilling his soldiers in the park. What a boy he was.…”
Let her rant on a little, thought Sarah. It would be a reward for giving the Treasury to Godolphin.
With Godolphin Lord Treasurer, and himself Commander of the Armed Forces, Marlborough saw that the future looked bright. He meant to wage war on the Continent; he was going to make his country the major power; but he needed absolute support at home. A great deal depended on the Queen—but Sarah could be relied upon to guide her. Even so there would be powerful enemies, for there were many ministers who were opposed to war. Both Whigs and Tories were oddly assorted within their own ranks. The Tory party was the Church party and the landowning classes; the Whigs were the moneyed section of the community, the commercial interest. Both parties had their encumbrances. The Tories the bigoted High Church dignitaries and the Jacobites; the Whigs, the Noncomformists and the Calvinists. But it was the Whigs who would support the war because war meant an expansion of commerce; while the Tories had no such means of enriching themselves and were impoverished by taxes. Yet in spite of his desire for war Marlborough was a Tory and there was dissension even in his close family circle, for Sarah herself was inclining more and more to Whiggery.
But when Marlborough persuaded his Allies to make the Pretender’s claim to the throne one of their reasons for continuing the conflict, the war assumed a greater popularity; and as the whole country was firmly behind the new Queen and determined that the Catholic Pretender should not come back, it was ready to go wholeheartedly into battle, and on a May morning Garter King of Arms appeared in the London streets and to the sound of trumpets declared to the people that England was at war.
This was triumph for Marlborough, and he immediately began making his preparations to leave for the Continent.
But he was not easy in his mind as to the situation at home. They had too many enemies, he had said to Sarah.
It was for this reason that he had sought to win Robert Harley to his side.
He had discussed this matter with Godolphin and they had both agreed that Harley was the third pillar needed to support the edifice they intended to set up.
“Your Francis is over-young,” said Marlborough, kindly, for he had quickly realized that Sarah’s complete lack of tact meant that he must use his own liberal supply to the full. “And he is therefore not in a position to be of much use … at the moment.” Francis, husband of Henrietta, was a good enough pawn. Member for Helston, he was a budding politician; but the situation demanded strong men. Marlborough’s mind rested fleetingly on his second son-in-law who had become the Earl of Sunderland on his father’s recent death. He was clever but rash and of an uncertain temper.
Godolphin was already thinking of Harley.
The three men met in Marlborough’s club and as soon as he had been invited Harley knew why. The situation interested him.
Marlborough came straight to the point. He believed, he said, that at all costs the French must be prevented from dominating Europe. It was his duty to see this; but there was a strong pacifist element in the country.
“It would be only a temporary peace,” said Marlborough, “and could before long bring our country to