Sir Winston Churchill's book (short extract)
In Book 7 of "The History of the English-speaking Peoples", Sir Winston Churchill starts with a detailed description of William and his reign. Churchill's description is generally extremely positive (see below and on separate sub-sections). However, it should be noted that Sir Winston was very adept at selecting only the facts which advanced his own point of view. It is possible that he wrote his eulogy for William so that he would have a suitably positive "backdrop" against which to project his account of his ancestor, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough (see the section on this website entitled: Detailed information > About others > Duke of Marlborough)
Sir Winston Churchill begins his first chapter on William in the following way:
"From his earliest years, the extraordinary Prince who in the general interest robbed his father-in-law of the British throne had dwelt under harsh and stern conditions. He was fatherless and childless. His life was loveless. His marriage was dictated by reasons of State. He was brought up by his termagant [i.e. violent and domineering] grandmother, and in his youth was regulated by one Dutch committee after another. His childhood was unhappy and his health bad. He had a tubercular lung. He was asthmatic and partly crippled.
But within this emaciated and defective frame there burned a remorseless fire, fanned by the storms of Europe, and intensified by the grimness of his surroundings. His greatest actions began before he was twenty-one. From that age he had fought constantly in the battlefield, and toiled through every intrigue of Dutch domestic politics and of the European scene...
In religion he was of course a Calvinist [i.e. a Protestant]... As a sovereign and commander he was entirely without religious prejudices. No agnostic could have displayed more philosophic impartiality. Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or infidel were all the same to him. He dreaded and hated Gallican Catholicism [i.e. the Catholicism of Louis XIV] less because it was to him idolatrous than because it was French. He employed Catholic officers without hesitation when they would serve his purpose. He used religious questions as counters in his political combinations. While he beat the Protestant drum in England and Ireland, he had potent influence with the Pope, with whom his relations were at all times a model of comprehending statesmanship. It almost seemed that a being had been created for the sole purpose of resisting the domination of France and her 'Great King' [i.e. Louis XIV]”.
... continued at:
Bibliography > Churchill book > More Churchill extracts
and
Bibliography > Churchill book > Churchill original
on this website.