BAROQUE BRITAIN
No visitor to Blenheim Palace in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds can be in any doubt as to the heroic nature of its architecture and, by inference, the heroic stature of the owner for whom it was built: the 1st Duke of Marlborough, allied commander at the Battle of Blenheim (1704) during the War of the Spanish Succession.
Conceived as a gift from Queen Anne and a grateful nation in celebration of his military success, the Baroque masterpiece is awesome in scale, triumphant with towers and patriotic sculpture. Sir John Vanbrugh, architect of the palace along with Nicholas Hawksmoor, fully admitted it
