Witness this present prysoner, whither Fate
Could bear me, and the joys I quitt;
Thou causeth the guiltie to be loosed
From bonds wherein an innocent's inclosed,
Causing the guiltless to be straite reserved,
And freeing those that Death hath well deserved;
But by her malice can be nothing wroughte,
So God send to my foes all they have thought.
A.D. 1555--Elizabeth, "Prisoner."
In Cromwell's time Woodstock suffered severely, and the castle was
defended for the king by a great warrior, Captain Samuel Fawcett, who
would have been buried beneath the ruins rather than surrender had not
the king ordered him to hand it over to the Parliament.
The manor and park continued to be vested in the Crown until the time of
Queen Anne, who bestowed it on her famous general, the Duke of
Marlborough, as a reward for his numerous victories abroad, so that he
might have a home worthy of him. The nation voted the successful soldier
half a million of money wherewith to build a magnificent palace to be
named after one of his greatest victories, and Blenheim was the result.
We were astonished at the enormous size of the mansion, in which, we
heard, many art treasures were stored, and the woodman told us that the
wall that enclosed the mansion and the park was more than eleven miles
long.
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