"The glories of the Age of Anne"--the union of England and Scotland to form "this island of Britain", and its establishment as a European and a global power--were the achievements of two men above all: Queen Anne's captain-general, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, and her Lord Treasurer, Sidney, first Earl of Godolphin, of whom it was said that each "was the greatest of his kind that hardly any age has afforded". Their partnership not...