Duke of Marlborough is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by Queen Anne in 1702 for John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough (1650–1722), the noted military leader. In historical texts, it is often to him that an unqualified use of the title refers. The name of the dukedom refers to Marlborough in Wiltshire. It is one of the few titles in the peerage which allows for suo jure female inheritance, and the only current dukedom to do so.
James FitzJames Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormond. Like his grandfather the 1st Duke, he was raised as a Protestant, unlike his extended family who held to Roman Catholicism. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion, in the Williamite War in Ireland, in the Nine Years' War and in the War of the Spanish Succession but was accused of treason and went into exile after the Jacobite rising of 1715.
In the British Army, the Horse Guards comprised several independent troops raised initially on the three different establishments. In the late 1660s, there were thus three troops in England, one in Ireland, and two in Scotland of which one was ceremonial for attendance of Lord High Commissioner. In 1707, there were four troops of Horse Guards, and two troops of Horse Grenadiers.
Richard Lumley, 1st Earl of Scarbrough, was an English soldier and statesman best known for his role in the Glorious Revolution.
The 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Earl of Arran's Regiment of Cuirassiers. It was renamed as the 4th Dragoon Guards in 1788 and service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with 7th Dragoon Guards, to form the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards in 1922.
The Royal Dragoons was a mounted infantry and later a heavy cavalry regiment of the British Army. The regiment was formed in 1661 as the Tangier Horse. It served for three centuries and was in action during the First and the Second World Wars. It was amalgamated with the Royal Horse Guards to form The Blues and Royals in 1969.
Sir Winston Churchill, MP FRS, known as the Cavalier Colonel, was an English soldier, nobleman, historian, and politician. He was the father of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, as well as an ancestor of his 20th-century namesake, Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
The 2nd Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army. It was first raised in 1685 by the Earl of Peterborough as the Earl of Peterborough's Regiment of Horse by merging four existing troops of horse.
The 5th Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685 as the Duke of Shrewsbury's Regiment of Horse. It was renamed as the 5th Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1788 and as the 5th Regiment of Dragoon Guards in 1804. It saw service for two centuries, including the First World War, before being amalgamated with The Inniskillings, to form the 5th/6th Dragoons in 1922.
Gentleman of the Bedchamber was a title in the royal household of the Kingdom of England from the 11th century, later used also in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Sir Edward Villiers was an English politician and military officer from the powerful Villiers family.
The Horse Grenadier Guards, usually referred to Horse Grenadiers were a series of cavalry troops in the British Household Cavalry between 1687 and 1788, who used grenades and other explosives in battle. Originally attached to the Horse Guards, they became independent for a century before being disbanded. However, the men of the troops formed the basis of the new troops of Life Guards.
The 2nd Troop of Horse Guards was originally formed in 1659 for Spanish service as Monck's Life Guards. It was successively renamed 3rd, or The Duke of Albemarle's Troop of Horse Guards (1660), 3rd, or The Lord General's Troop of Horse Guards (1661) and, finally, 2nd, or The Queen's Troop of Horse Guards. It fought at the Battle of Dettingen and, in 1746, absorbed the 4th Troop of Horse Guards. In 1788, it absorbed the 2nd Troop Horse Grenadier Guards and was reorganized to become the 2nd Regiment of Life Guards.
The 4th Troop of Horse Guards was the Scottish unit within the Horse Guards Regiment. It was part of the United Kingdom military establishment from 1709 to 1746, but before the Union of the Parliaments, it had been an independent unit in Scotland, sometimes referred to in modern works as the Scots Troop of Horse. The unit's establishment is usually dated to 1661, although its antecedents extend back to the fifteenth century.
Sir John Talbot of Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, Long Acre, Westminster, and Salwarpe, Worcestershire, was an English soldier, politician, and landowner, who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1660 and 1687. He was a second in a duel between George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury.
