Blenheim Palace

The Green Writing Room

On the right of the chimney-piece is Kneller's best-known portrait of Marlborough, before which the Duke, in old age, is said to have murmured, 'This was once a man.'

On the far side of the room hangs the most famous of all the tapestries, that showing Marlborough in his hour of triumph as he accepts Marshall Tallard's surrender at the Battle of Blenheim (1704). Tallard was bundled into Marlborough's coach with t wo other captured generals and sent to England, to be kept prisoner at Nottingham. There he was handsomely treated; far more handsomely than was Marlborough, whom, after all his victories, Q ueen Anne dismissed in 1711. As for the tapestry itself, it looks, as Sarah described it in 1740, 'as fresh as new', and the more you look into it, the more you see. For example, behind the grenadier with the captured French standard are burning water mil ls and a field dressing-station. Behind them the village of Blindheim (Blenheim) packed with French troops; and beyond that, in the far distance, the Danube, into which the allies are driving thousands of the enemy. The tapestry on the opposite wall shows an incident at Wynendael (1708), when it was found necessary with the help of a halberd to keep the hired driver of a 'Marlbrouk' cart at his post.The portrait over the chimneypiece is of Elizabeth 3rd Duchess of Marlborough. The ceiling was designed by Vanbrugh's partner, Nicholas Hawksmoor.