The Duke of Marlborough
马尔伯勒公爵
Aristocracy at work
贵族当政
Jun 19th 2008
From The Economist print edition
A new life of a general who moved through court and battlefield with equal verve
将军新传——从宫廷到战场，气度依然
ARISTOCRACY seems such a quaint form of government now that it is sometimes hard to remember that it was once thought to be the only viable option, at least for a state above a certain size. The life of the first Duke of Marlborough is, in part, an illustration of how effective it could be. The page boy, sent to court to restore his family’s wealth, got his break in the army after catching the king’s eye.
今天，似乎很少会有人记起古老的贵族政治，但它却曾经是唯一的政体形式，至少对于当时颇具规模的国家而言是如此。马尔伯勒一世公爵的一生，或者说一部分，展示了贵族政治的种种。带着重振家族使命的他以侍童的身份进入宫廷，不仅得到了国王的赏识，还建立了赫赫军功。
This sounds like a hopelessly inefficient way to pick a military leader, but Marlborough turned out to be a brilliant commander who, as his descendant and biographer, Winston Churchill, wrote, never fought a battle he did not win or saw a town he could not take.
启用侍从统领军队，这听起来着实让人失望。但马尔伯勒却出人意料地成为了一位战绩辉煌的司令。正如为其立传的后人，温斯顿·丘吉尔所述，公爵一向是攻无不克，战无不胜。
Ever since Churchill described Marlborough’s childhood at Ashe House in Devon, the duke’s urge to get on has been ascribed to the discomfort he felt at the disjuncture between his family’s high social status and its empty pockets. His family had been on the losing side during the English civil war and it had cost them. Yet the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 created opportunities for impecunious Royalists, and Marlborough availed himself of them.
马尔伯勒公爵的童年是在德文郡的爱什皇室度过，家族囊中羞涩的窘迫与高高在上的社会地位是如此不相称，这让小小年纪的马尔伯勒如鲠在喉，迫不及待地要重拾家族昔日辉煌。马尔伯勒家族在英国内战中失利，损失惨重。然而，1660年王室复辟又给这些没落的保皇党带来了东山再起的机会，马尔伯勒没有错过。
At court, he used his looks to charm the right women and his ability to avoid making enemies. He was a diplomat before he became a commander, something that proved useful later when he had to keep together the coalition of armies ranged against France. His most significant conquest at court was not a rich dowager but Sarah, who became his wife.
在宫中，马尔伯勒英俊的相貌俘获了不少贵妇，但他又能左右逢源，免于树敌。在成为司令之前，马尔伯勒是位外交家。这一身份助他保住了反法同盟，使其免于涣散。宫廷生活中，他最大的收获不是某一位富有的贵族遗孀，而是他的公爵夫人–莎拉。
She, like him, was less grand than her presence in royal circles implied. She was beautiful and pushy and they loved each other, which seems surprising given the age and the velvet-and-brocade backdrop to their courtship. She also had a tough streak; she quarrelled so often with Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of the Marlboroughs’ palace at Blenheim in Oxfordshire, that she ended up banning him from the place, denying Vanbrugh the chance to look at his masterpiece. Her children, pictured above with their duke and duchess, found her equally hard to get along with. Yet she fed Marlborough’s ambition and together they perfected the skill of negotiating the circles of influence at court.
莎拉同马尔伯勒一样，其家族也是表面地位显赫，实际却难负盛名。她不仅貌美，而且野心勃勃。他们彼此深爱，这份真情在成人世界以及浮华如是的宫廷中都可谓稀罕。公爵夫人做事也是棱角分明，她与马尔伯勒宫（位于牛津郡的布兰宁）的设计师约翰·范布勒爵士有过多次争吵，最后干脆禁止他出入，连让爵士看一眼自己杰作的机会都没给。画中公爵夫妇的子女也认为与公爵夫人难以相处。但她却是帮助马尔伯勒实现雄心壮志的不二人选，两人一起展示了在派系林立的宫廷中如何合纵连横，磋商斡旋。
Power that came like this could easily be taken away. Marlborough deserted his long-time patron, James II, in favour of William of Orange. Yet he later found himself sidelined under suspicion of having sympathies with the deposed monarch’s line, before coming back into favour. Sarah’s great moment came with the accession of her friend Anne to the throne, and yet when she fell out with the monarch she too was dumped. In a final fit of pique Sarah had all the fixtures and fittings removed from her apartments in the royal household. Her queen responded by suspending payments on Blenheim Palace.
权力来也匆匆，去也匆匆。马尔伯勒背弃了他的长期后台詹姆斯二世，倒戈投向奥兰治亲王威廉。但不久，他发现自己因有人怀疑其对旧主余党仍心存怜悯而饱受排挤，未得重用。而公爵夫人莎拉虽然因好友安妮荣登皇后宝座而风光一时，但好景不长，就因一次争吵而受冷落。莎拉负气将宫中其房间的家具、装饰品全部搬走。而好友安妮王后则回敬以停发布兰宁宫的费用。
Richard Holmes has written a lot of military history, and has also taught it at Sandhurst, a British school for army officers. He is a good storyteller and has a rather 17th-century way of sketching characters: Charles XII of Sweden, for example, “abstained from women and alcohol, but enjoyed wrestling with bears”. His chief interest, though, remains those battles where maps and tactics are more important than charm, uncertainty and luck.
理查德·赫尔马斯是一位军史专家，著述颇丰，他还在桑德赫斯特军官学校任教。他擅长讲故事，有着17世纪的叙事风格, 比如说瑞典国王查理十二，他的描述就是”酒色不沾，独乐与熊摔跤”。但理查德的兴趣仍是研究战争，战场上较之于风度、机遇和运气，地图和战略更为重要。
Although Marlborough was no original tactician, Mr Holmes argues persuasively that the duke’s skill lay in probing his opponent’s defences, then moving quickly and committing troops when a weakness opened up. He did this again and again, and with the exception of the battle of Malplaquet, loss of life on his own side was relatively low.
尽管马尔伯勒不是出其不意战略家，但赫尔马斯仍对其赞不绝口，称他最擅长发现敌人防御漏洞，并迅速调集军队打开缺口。此法屡试不爽，除了马尔普拉奎特一役失利之外，其他战役中与敌军相比均是伤亡较少。
After all this winning, though, Marlborough ended up being brought low by an inquiry into the use of public funds during the war, which found that he had been raking off 2.5% of the money paid to the soldiers serving abroad and had also accepted a large cheque from the merchants who supplied the men with bread. Yet the king forgave the boy from Ashe House these indiscretions, which allowed his descendants to grow up in a palace where they live to this day.
胜利之后的马尔伯勒却因一项战争费用使用调查而声名扫地。调查发现他克扣了2.5%驻外士兵的军饷，还接受了军队面包供应商的一大笔回扣。然而，国王原谅了这个来自爱什家族男孩儿的一时冲动。他的子孙在马尔伯勒宫中一代代繁衍，至今仍是如此。
Book details
Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genius
By Richard Holmes
Harper Press; 564 pages; £25
译者：eirrac http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12291&extra=page%3D1