Book Review – The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History Behind the Major Motion Picture by Ophelia Field
First published, 2002
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Thoroughly researched, with surprising moments of humour, as well as some excellent images of life, love, politics and fury in the 1700s, I really enjoyed this biography.
I loved the film (with Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, 2018. Go, watch, it’s a cracker) and was surprised that the suggestion of a romantic relationship between Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill was not a Hollywood affectation but might very well have basis in fact.
The difficulty in knowing exactly what sort of relationship Queen Anne had with Lady Marlborough, and indeed others, seems to stem from the word ‘passion’; something we would now, I think universally, understand to mean something of an intimate nature, but which, in actuality, can be taken to mean any overwhelming emotion; that the Queen spoke of her passion for Sarah in her letters could mean any number of things including close friendship. Which is not to erase lesbian history, with that terrible band-aid of “roommates” that seems so popular with some historians, but there’s nothing completely conclusive, nothing that negates the need for further explanation, in their surviving correspondence.
The fact that Sarah Churchill destroyed many of her letters, and left multiple versions of her memoirs, as well as a history filled to the brim with contemporaries who may well have struggled with the concept of an outspoken and influential woman, must have made this a difficult book to research, and I can only express my admiration for the author.
That said, I did become confused from time to time. Some of the key players have titles, ranks and even names which are remarkably similar and, coming from a rather spotty historical education, I got a bit lost on occasion. (I’m working on my education, hence the reading of this book.)
But there are some amazing stories here. One that struck me full in the face was as follows:
“Later Sarah provided refuge for another granddaughter, Bella, daughter of Mary Duchess of Montagu, who had been forced into an early marriage. The twenty-three-year-old 2nd Duke of Manchester had fallen passionately in love with her. He made a habit of locking himself in a room with two loaded pistols, saying he would kill himself if she refused to marry him. On one occasion he actually shot out his right eye, along with some of his skull, and on a second shot shattered his jaw. Next he tried to hang himself, at which point servants broke down the door and saved him. After all this, Bella was persuaded to accept him, though she never loved him and received a long line of suitors throughout her marriage.”
66% in, Chapter Twelve, A Dozen Heirs, The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History Behind the Major Motion Picture by Ophelia Field
I mean. Oof.
There was another scene, around the same point in the book in fact, which centred around the time when the Duke and Duchess of Bedford lost their first baby:
“… on the day of its birth. Remembering the loss of her own first-born, Sarah ordered that another baby – probably a servant’s – be laid beside the exhausted mother until she was more able to ‘hear the truth and be told it was only a Pretender.’”
66% in, Chapter Twelve, A Dozen Heirs, The Favourite: The Life of Sarah Churchill and the History Behind the Major Motion Picture by Ophelia Field
This behaviour is nigh-on incomprehensible to a modern reader, but I suspect this, among other psychologically dangerous advice was pretty normal at the time.
That the Queen dies round about the halfway point in the book surprised me, but even Sarah doesn’t make it to the end. The last chapter or so is dedicated to Sarah’s place in history and the many biographies and plays written about her, both in her time and in the 278 years since she died.
The notes section is expansive and, as with all books that contain a massive bibliography, I realise I have a lot more reading to do.
Petrina Binney - Author 