Royal Favourites: Queen Anne & Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
5/18/202648 min
How did Sarah Churchill become the most powerful woman in Queen Anne’s court? What happens when a royal friendship turns into a political battlefield? How did one absent set of jewels signal the beginning of the end?
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb continues her series on royal favourites with the extraordinary story of Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough — the intimate friend, political operator and fierce chronicler whose influence shaped Queen Anne’s reign and who refused to go quietly.
MORE:
Queen Anne: The Last Stuart Monarch
Sister Queens: Mary II and Anne
Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSuzannah Lipscomb· Host0:01
Want to walk the halls of Anne Boleyn's childhood home or explore the castles that made up Henry VIII's English stronghold? With a subscription to History Hit, you can dive into our Tudor past alongside the world's leading historians and archeologists. You'll also unlock hundreds of hours of original documentaries with a brand-new release every single week, covering everything from the ancient world to World War II. Just visit historyhit.com/subscribe. [music] Hello, I'm Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to samurais, relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage, and witchcraft. [laughs] Not, in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. [music] In the glittering royal courts of the 17th and 18th century, power did not always sit on the throne. Sometimes it stood just behind it, whispering, advising, persuading, and at times provoking. Over the past few weeks, I've been revisiting the lives of some of the most famous, even notorious, favorites of the English court. I started with Robert Dudley, Elizabeth I's forbidden love, followed by George Villiers, Duke