You
can’t deny its magnificence, and I admire the First Duke of Marlborough, who
received the Palace and its lands after his success at the Battle of Blenheim
in 1704.
But it took some work to
appreciate him and his victory because it unfolded within the very screwy War
of the Spanish Succession.
That War was
intertwined with the even screwier South Seas scandal, a stock market
catastrophe generated by English interest in the slave trade. One of my presumed ancestors was criminally
involved in the entreprise and thus my long acquaintance with the details.
Sprinkle
the long string of less-than-admirable succeeding Dukes over this history (though I do have a soft spot for the new one, Jamie who turned his life around before his
dad’s passing last year), and you find yourself walking toward Woodstock and
the Palace with a smirk and a “stroppy” mix of expectations.
This
feeling of contradiction was magnified by weather that shifted from wildly
windy to calm and sunny. The scenery
changes a lot too. Pheasant-filled fields and forests,
like Deadman’s Riding Wood and King’s Wood, as well as stately farm manors like
Ditchley Mansion, where Churchill held wartime cabinet meetings.
The
Blenheim estate hits you with all of the above:
trees, fields, and more pheasants as well as amazing architecture that
begins with the nine-mile long, dry-stone wall you surmount to enter. All
of this made for an oddly appropriate backdrop to our tour of Blenheim the next
day.
After trying out two pubs and the hot pastries at our B&B, the Blenheim Buttery, we waddled over to the Palace anticipating a standard historic site tour of gift shops, cafeteria food, art and artefacts.
But
Blenheim does something different. Last
October, under the stardust of the new Blenheim Art Foundation, the Palace
launched a program of contemporary art exhibitions, beginning with the works of
Chinese human rights advocate Ai Weiwei.
His work is not at the extreme end of modern art, but it still jars some
people to see it exhibited in the Estate Rooms amidst the old European furniture,
tapestries, and china.
When
we were told that the ceramic crab pile on the floor was inspired by Weiwei’s last meal
before his arrest in 2011, I thought of the slave trade,
my ancestors, and the War of Spanish Succession that produced this place.
And I saw no incongruity or contradiction in scene.
And I saw no incongruity or contradiction in scene.
