Political Friendship in Churchill's Marlborough

This article examines Winston Churchill's biography of his ancestor, John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, as a character study and as a statement of Churchill's own fundamental political wisdom. It argues that Marlborough's capacity for friendship is key not only as a tool for statecraft, but as its very purpose. It examines Marlborough's friendship with Eugene of Savoy as the backbone of the alliance against Louis XIV. It also considers Churchill's purpose of writing the biography as an expression of friendship as the fundamental purpose of politics.