Bleinheim Palace was built for John Churchill the Duke of Marlborough by Queen Anne in gratitude for his leading a successful spanking of Louis XIV’s French Army. This gift was given despite Churchill’s bedding of Anne’s father’s, King Charles II, favorite mistress several years earlier. But a good French whooping puts anyone in the good graces of the monarchy and thus Churchill’s reward. The palace, in Oxfordshire, is one of the biggest in Europe – a Baroque fantasy on 2,000 acres of manicured gardens. After the cornerstone was laid in 1705 it took 28 years to complete Blenheim. Three hundred years later the palace is still the Churchill-Spencer family estate and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It was a bright Autumn day in Oxford today and we decided on a family outing. Despite having lived in Oxford for three years now and Blenheim Palace being just a hop up the road in the village of Woodstock, we’ve never visited the estate. So we chose Woodstock for our destination – packed the car with pram, diapers, diaper bag, car seat, Z and took off north a couple hours later than planned. To be fair I think we did pretty good for new parents. Z slept through most of the trip and we were able to negotiate the very buggy unfriendly grounds and palace without much of a stir from the boy. They were filming a movie, “The Young Victoria” on the grounds so we got to check out the period costumes and star stalk (we didn’t see any). The grounds are amazing, the palace itself is impressive, but if we went again I would pay just for the gardens as the price of admission is pretty steep. Oh, and a tip for anyone planning a visit – skip “The Untold Story”. It’s a Disney-esque attempt to make the palace more something, kid friendly? But it turns out to be a really dull waste of time. A guided tour would be more informative and entertaining.

Z woke up about three hours in and decided to make things a bit difficult for his novice parents. We couldn’t get him quiet and we haven’t quite gotten feeding and changing in public down to an art yet. Coincidentally a friend of mine was visiting Blenheim with her four month old son and gave us some moral support. Ultimately though we beat a retreat back to Oxford. We’ll call Operation Family Outing a small victory.

One of the most entertaining things about the palace was some of the history we learned. John Churchill was exiled and died before Blenheim was completed and the Duchy was turned over to the Spencer family. Princess Diana is descended from these Spencers in an interesting way. She is descended from Henrietta Fitzjames, the illegitimate daughter of King James II and Arabella Spencer – Churchill’s sister. Hard to keep these things straight, eh? Blenheim was the birthplace and childhood home of Winston Churchill, who was the nephew of the 7th Duke of Marlborough. Hard to keep track of who’s who in the British aristocracy, but they manage to continuw to find ways of getting into trouble. Charles-James Spencer Churchill, the Marquis of Blandford and in line to become the 12th Duke of Marlborough and who calls Blenheim home, has more than 20 convictions for theft, drugs and motoring offences. His latest brush with the courts came after he attacked a fellow motorist, almost crashed into a police car that was trying to catch him and was caught on CCTV aggressively tailgating drivers – all in separate incidents. It’s all a little bit Southern Gothic, like a Walker Percy novel.

Here’s a slideshow of our day out at Blenheim. Sorry, not many Z pictures as he was either asleep or screaming.

Popularity: 5% [?]