The 41-metre (134-foot)-high Doric ‘Column of Victory’ stands at the entrance to the Great Avenue in the Park. It is crowned by a lead statue of the 1st Duke, by Robert Pit. The statue depicts him dressed as a Roman general, with eagles at his feet and a Winged Victory in his hand. The monument was begun in 1727, five years after his death, and completed in 1730 at a cost of £3.000.*

Three sides feature extracts from the Acts of Parliament that settled the estate on the 1st Duke and his descendants in both the male and female lines. On the fourth side, facing the palace, is an epitaph to Malborough by Lord Bolingbroke (Henry St John) – Ironically a hated political foe of the Marlboroughs form the days of Queen Anne.*

Sir Winston Churchill wrote of the Column of Victory’s epitaph in his biography of the 1st Duke. ‘The inscription is a masterpiece of compact and majestic statement. In fact, it would serve as a history in itself, were all other records lost.’*

*From the Blenheim Palace guidebook printed 2014