While considered by some an effective administrator, he made many enemies and achieved high office largely due to his friendship with Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Anne.

[2] Winston served with the Royalist Army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and was heavily fined as a result, forcing his family to live at Ash House with his mother-in-law.

[7] Returning from Spain in 1668, his father's financial troubles meant George spent a brief period as a Draper's apprentice, one of the powerful trade associations that dominated the City of London.

A few months later, James suspended Parliament for refusing to pass his measures; his Tory backers began to desert him after 1686, when his policies increasingly seemed to threaten the primacy of the Church of England.

Churchill was a close friend of the Earl of Torrington, commander at Beachy Head, who was ordered by Edward Russell to attack a French force considerably larger than his own.

He retained his seat as MP and continued his close links with Prince George; when Russell retired in 1699, he was appointed Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty.

[18] The underlying issue was war weariness; Marlborough's victory at Ramillies in 1706 raised hopes of a rapid end but a series of defeats in Spain during 1707 showed this was not the case.

There were certainly failings in administration but part of the problem was different views on the navy's role; the Tories felt it should focus on protecting British merchant shipping, the Whigs wanted it to support land operations in the Mediterranean, including Italy, Southern France and Spain.

[19] Prince George said he would resign if Churchill were forced out, while Tories in the Lords claimed failures in naval policy and Spain were caused by the unnecessary diversion of resources to Flanders to bolster Marlborough's reputation.

[4] When Prince George died in October 1708, the Council was dissolved and Churchill retired to a house in the Royal park at Windsor, where he maintained a famous aviary.