Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough
(1660 - 1774) U.K.
Aristocrat
Sarah was an attendant to the Duchess of York's stepdaughter, the Princess Anne, when she met John Churchill, the First Duke of Marlborough. They married in 1678. She became one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber, and possibly a lover, to Princess Anne in 1683.
As Mistress of the Robes and Keeper of the Privy Purse and a close friend of Queen Anne, she wielded great influence at court until 1707, when she and the Queen had a sudden falling out. Thereafter she spent more time at Blenheim Palace, remaining one of the most painted women of her day.
"It is a common observation that differences of taste, understanding, and disposition are no impediments to friendship, and that the closest intimacies often exist between minds, each of which supplies what is wanting in the other. Lady Churchill was loved and even worshipped by Anne. The princess could not live apart from the object of her romantic fondness."
Source: Macaulay, History of England, ch. VII
Picture: Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough - enamel by C F Zincke
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