Palaces | The new British Prime Minister hosted Stubb and others at the historic Blenheim Palace: Winston Churchill’s birthplace was a stately mansion of its time

London

In the British is a home field advantage when you have to organize spectacular international meetings.

Historical buildings can be found in abundance in the country, which create a plush setting for any meeting.

Basically, it’s about soft power (soft power). History and culture facilitate the passage of a political message.

Who wouldn’t want to negotiate important things when the meeting invitation goes to Blenheim Palace, aka the prime minister-war hero Winston Churchill (1874–1965) to the birthplace.

Blenheim Palace is the skull place again on Thursday, when Britain’s new Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosts its first international meeting.

Around 45 heads of state are gathering for a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC) at Blenheim Palace near Oxford. Finland is represented by the President of the Republic Alexander Stubb.

A large group of invited guests is not a problem.

There is enough space.

Blenheim Palace has often been called Britain’s largest mansion. There are about two hundred rooms.

English the baroque Blenheim palace originated in 1704 when an English nobleman John Churchill led his troops to victory at the Battle of Blenheim in what is now southern Germany.

Queen Give it (Anne in English) was pleased and rewarded the war hero princely.

Churchill, or the first Duke of Marlborough, received a gift of more than a thousand hectares of land. The parliament decided to donate another 250,000 pounds from the treasury to build the castle.

The duke had direct contact with the queen anyway.

Duke’s wife Sarah was the queen’s childhood friend and the most influential woman in the court – until she fell out of favor.

The power play of women and to a lesser extent men in the queen’s inner circle is also depicted in the award-winning blockbuster film The Favourite (2018).

A biographer Mary S. Lovell writes in his acclaimed work The Churchills (2011) that the duke wanted his dream home to be the “Versailles of England” and a national monument.

And he certainly got that.

An architect was hired John Vanbrughwho had no formal training in the field.

Instead, he had first-hand experience of French architecture from his years as a political activist: Vanbrugh spent time in the Bastille prison, for example.

Construction work lasted fifteen years. In the summer of 1719, the duke couple and their families were finally able to move.

Duchess Sarah hated the big palace.

“This is a wild and merciless house that will not be tamed by any number of featherbeds, pilfers and servants,” Sarah wrote, according to Lovell’s genealogy.

The couple did not leave a male heir. Under normal circumstances, it would have meant the withering of the noble title right away.

However, with special permission, the dukedom of Marlborough was allowed to pass to the eldest daughter of the duke couple At Henrietta’sand from him further to the nephew To Charles Spencer.

After all, the British aristocracy is small: Blenheim Palace started to host a princess with the Spencers Diana’s ancient relatives.

of Blenheim the palace may be handsome to look at, but, according to Lovell’s book, it was grim to live in.

High rooms are difficult to heat. The maintenance of the house required large sums of money, and the Spencer-Churchills were plagued by a chronic lack of money.

Money was obtained by marrying American heiresses into the family.

Winston Churchill’s mother Jennie Jerome was born in Brooklyn, New York. He came to the Spencer-Churchill family in 1874 with a rich dowry – although the wealth of the American father-in-law was ultimately not as great as it was calculated in England.

In the year 1895 Winston Churchill’s cousin, the 9th Duke of Malborough, married an American railroad heiress of Consuelo Vanderbilt.

The new duchess got a headache from the heavy tiaras. Even Blenheim Palace felt dreary after getting used to modern comforts in New York.

You can’t just blame the house for the problems, because the marriage was loveless.

The atmosphere at family dinners was cold. The duke husband was behaving strangely.

“We didn’t usually talk to each other. I was so depressed that I took up knitting,” wrote Consuelo, according to Lovell’s work.

Elongated was also the butler, who reportedly used to read detective stories behind the door of the dinner room.

A war hero Churchill’s birth room was not the most beautiful of the palace.

Mother Jennie was directed to give birth in a small bedroom that was usually reserved for the palace organist.

In August 1908, Winston Churchill persuaded his ducal cousin to invite himself and his crush by Clementine Hozier to Blenheim so he could propose.

The romantic step was taken in the garden of Blenheim Palace in the pouring rain, writes the Churchill biographer Geoffrey Best in his work Churchill – a Study of Greatness (2001).

Part of Blenheim Palace and its gardens is open for anyone to visit and propose – for an admission fee, of course.

The cheapest admission ticket for adults costs around 33 euros. The money goes to the maintenance of the palace.

Blenheim Palace is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

However, you have to be careful with pronunciation.

Blenheim is the English version of the German place name Blindheim. However, Blenheim cannot be pronounced in the German way, but must be pronounced “blenem”.