Churchill, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, n�e Jennings 1660-1744
English aristocrat

In 1673 she entered the service of the Duke of York (the future James VII and II), and became a close friend of his younger daughter, Princess (the future Queen) Anne. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, when William III supplanted James II on the throne, she and her husband, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, tried to draw Anne into Jacobite intrigues for the restoration of her father. After Anne became queen, Sarah, who was beautiful, but fiery and headstrong, dominated her household and the Whig ministry. Queen Anne broke with the Marlboroughs in 1711, and Sarah was replaced by her cousin, Mrs Abigail Masham. She had two daughters: Henrietta, who married (1698) Sidney, 1st Earl of Godolphin, and Anne, who married (1700) a son of the 2nd Earl of Sunderland. After her husband's death (1722) she devoted herself to the completion of Blenheim Palace, quarrelling with the architect, Sir John Vanbrugh.