George Churchill (1654 – 1710), admiral, younger brother of John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, is said to have served as a volunteer in the navy in the Dutch war of 1666. During the Dutch war of 1672–4 he served as a lieutenant in the York and Fairfax, and in 1678 was appointed to command the Dartmouth. In September 1680 he commanded the Falcon, in which he went, in charge of convoy, as far as the Canaries. In September 1688 he was appointed to the Newcastle. John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, in his Garter robes John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, KG, PC (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722) was an English military officer during the War of the Spanish Succession. ... The coat of arms of the Dukes of Marlborough The Dukedom of Marlborough (named after Marlborough, pronounced Maulbruh - in the IPA), is an hereditary title of British nobility in the Peerage of England. ... The Royal Prince and other vessels at the Four Days Fight, 11–14 June 1666 by Abraham Storck depicts a battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. ... Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS York for the county seat of Yorkshire, on the River Ouse. ... There have been eight ships that have borne the name HMS Newcastle in the Royal Navy, all serving her nation with distinction. ...

It is difficult to believe that these appointments involved active service. If Churchill had really served, or wished to serve, afloat, there can be little question but that, with his brother's court interest, his promotion would have been very much more rapid. Guided by his brother, he was one of the first of the officers of the fleet to offer his services to the Prince of Orange, and was shortly afterwards advanced to be captain of the Windsor Castle, which he commanded in the battle off Beachy Head. With greater opportunity of distinction he commanded the St. Andrew in the battle of Barfleur. William III of England (The Hague,14 November 1650 – Hampton Court, 8 March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William III of Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and a Protestant Prince of Orange from his birth, Stadtholder of the United Netherlands from 28 June 1672, King of... Combatants France England United Provinces Commanders Anne Hilarion de Tourville Earl of Torrington Strength 75 ships 56 ships Casualties None 7 Dutch ships lost The naval Battle of Beachy Head or Bataille de Béveziers took place on 30 June 1690 near Beachy Head, a promontory near Eastbourne, on the... Combatants France England United Provinces Commanders Anne Hilarion de Tourville Edward Russell Strength 44 ships (3,142 guns) 98 ships (8,980 guns) Casualties 15 ships burnt 2 ships sunk The related naval battles of Barfleur and La Hougue took place between 27 May and 3 June 1692 (17-23...

In 1693 Churchill withdrew from the service. His withdrawal was commonly attributed to jealousy at the promotion of Captain Matthew Aylmer to flag rank over his head, but appears to have been rather the effect of the king's dislike of the family of Churchill, and of ill-will towards Russell, then first lord of the admiralty, whom Churchill believed to have influenced the king's decision (Add. MS. 31958, ff. 45–6). In 1699, when Russell, then earl of Orford, retired from the admiralty, and Marlborough had made his peace with the king, Churchill was appointed to a seat at the admiralty, which he held till January 1701–2, when the Earl of Pembroke was made lord high admiral. Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer, c. ... Categories: People stubs | 1653 births | 1727 deaths | Peers | Royal Navy admirals | Lords of the Admiralty ... The First Lord of the Admiralty was a British government position in charge of the Admiralty. ... The title of Earl of Orford was created several times in British history - in the Peerage of England in 1697, in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1742 for former prime minister Robert Walpole, and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1806 for Lord Walpole, Walpoles distant... Old Admiralty House, Whitehall, London, Thomas Ripley, architect, 1723-26, was not admired by his contemporaries and earned him some scathing couplets from Alexander Pope The Admiralty was historically the authority in the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy. ... Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, 5th Earl of Montgomery (c. ... For the international law of the sea, see Admiralty law. ...

On the accession of Anne and the appointment of Prince George as lord high admiral, Churchill was appointed one of his royal highness's council (23 May 1702). His interest sufficed to make him chief, and his first step was to promote himself at a bound to be admiral of the blue, thus placing himself above Aylmer, who was then vice-admiral of the red. At the same time, to give the promotion an air of reality, as well as, perhaps, to insure the pay of the rank, he hoisted his flag for a few days at Portsmouth, on board the Triumph. This and a similar parade the following year were his whole service as a flag officer; but the star of the house of Churchill was just then in the ascendant, and for the next six years Churchill governed the navy, as his brother, the Duke of Marlborough, governed the army. Complaints of the mismanagement of the navy were loud and frequent. The trade, it was alleged, was inefficiently protected; even the convoys were insecure. The activity of the French privateers was notorious; and the English admiralty, with a force at their disposal immeasurably superior to that of France, so managed it that at the point of attack they were always inferior. The exploits of Duguay-Trouin, or Forbin, in the Channel brought this home to the popular mind, and permitted Lord Haversham to say in the House of Lords: Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) became Queen of England and Ireland and Queen of Scots on 8 March 1702. ... Prince George of Denmark Prince George of Denmark (April 2, 1653 - October 28, 1708) was the Prince consort of Queen Anne of Great Britain. ... Admiral is a word from either the Arabic term amir-al-bahr, or the Irish term Ard muirfhear or Ardmurar , both meaning commander of the seas. ... Portsmouth is a city of about 189,000 people located in the county of Hampshire on the southern coast of England. ... Several ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Triumph: Triumph, launched in 1764, was a 74-gun third-rate ship-of-the-line built at Woolwich. ... Flag Officer is both a historic naval rank and a modern day navy title. ... Statue in St Malo René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, usually called Réné Duguay-Trouin, (Saint Malo, 10 June 1673 -- 1736) was a famous French privateer, Lieutenant-Général des armées navales du roi (admiral) and Commander in the Order of Saint-Louis. ... Chevalier (later Count) Claude de Forbin (August 6, 1656 _ March 4, 1733) was a French naval commander. ... Satellite view of the English Channel The English Channel (French: La Manche (IPA: ), the sleeve) is the part of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ...

"Your disasters at sea have been so many, a man scarce knows where to begin. Your ships have been taken by your enemies, as the Dutch take your herrings, by shoals, upon your own coasts; nay, your royal navy itself has not escaped. These are pregnant misfortunes and big with innumerable mischiefs."

So also the attempted invasion by the Pretender in 1708 must have been utterly crushed, it was stoutly argued, if Byng's ships had been clean and effective. These numerous failures all brought discredit on the prince's naval administration, the head and real autocrat of which was Churchill, and added to the many causes of ill-will which were accumulating against the Duke of Marlborough. Churchill, indeed, seems to have been ignorant, incapable, and overbearing, and to have rendered himself hated by almost all who came in contact with him. James Francis Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender Prince James Francis Edward Stuart or Stewart (June 10, 1688 – January 1, 1766) was a claimant of the thrones of Scotland and England (September 16, 1701 – January 1, 1766) and is commonly referred to as The Old Pretender. ... The Right Honourable George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington (1668) - (Jan. ...

He accumulated a large fortune, no doubt garnered from the thousand nameless perquisites of office. On the death of Prince George in October 1708 he retired from the admiralty and lived mostly at a villa in Windsor Park, where he occupied himself with the care of a magnificent aviary, which at his death, 8 May 1710, he bequeathed to the Duke of Ormonde and the Earl of Torrington. He was never married, and the bulk of his large fortune was inherited by a natural son. He was tory M.P. for St. Albans 1685–7, and 1689–1708, and at the time of his death was member for Portsmouth. His portrait, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, to which it was presented by George IV. Windsor Park - a view from the Kop Stand, showing the two-tiered North Stand and the low Railway stand behind the opposite goal Windsor Park is the home ground of the Northern Irish football club, Linfield FC, in Belfast. ... James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde (April 29, 1665 - November 16, 1745), Irish statesman and soldier, son of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, and grandson of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, was born in Dublin and was educated in France and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford. ... Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington (c. ... Sir Godfrey Kneller (August 8, 1646 -October 19, 1723) was an artist, court painter to several British monarchs. ... Greenwich (pronounced grenn-itch or by some grinn-itch ) is a town, now part of the south eastern urban sprawl of London, on the south bank of the River Thames in the London Borough of Greenwich. ... George IV (George Augustus Frederick) (12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was king of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Hanover from 29 January 1820 until his death. ...

References

• A. L. Rowse, The early Churchills: an English family (New York, 1958)
• Churchill, George (1654–1710), admiral, by J. K. Laughton, Dictionary of National Biography, 1887