Editing Blenheim Palace (section)

=== Failing fortunes ===
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[[File:Woodstock Gate, Blenheim Palace.jpg|thumb|Woodstock gate to park, 1723 by Nicholas Hawksmoor]]
On the death of the 1st Duke in 1722, as both his sons were dead, he was succeeded by his daughter [[Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough|Henrietta]]. This was an unusual succession and required a special Act of Parliament,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blenheimpalaceeducation.com/history/duchess2.htm |title=2nd Duchess of Marlborough |publisher=Blenheimpalaceeducation.com |access-date=12 February 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820093459/http://www.blenheimpalaceeducation.com/history/duchess2.htm |archive-date=20 August 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> as only sons can usually succeed to an English dukedom. When Henrietta died, the title passed to Marlborough's grandson [[Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough|Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland]], whose mother was Marlborough's second daughter [[Anne Churchill|Anne]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Spencer, Charles (1706-1758)|volume=53}}</ref>

The 1st Duke, as a soldier, was not a rich man and what fortune he possessed was mostly used for finishing the palace. In comparison with other British ducal families, the Marlboroughs were not very wealthy. Yet they existed quite comfortably until the time of the [[George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough|5th Duke of Marlborough]] (1766–1840), a [[spendthrift]] who considerably depleted the family's remaining fortune. He was eventually forced to sell other family estates, but Blenheim was safe from him as it was [[entail]]ed. This did not prevent him from selling the Marlboroughs' [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] for a mere £875 and his own library in over 4000 lots. On his death in 1840, his profligacy left the estate and family with financial problems.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mary|last=Soames|author-link=Mary Soames|year=1987|title=The Profligate Duke: George Spencer Churchill, Fifth Duke of Marlborough, and His Duchess|publisher=Harper-Collins|isbn=978-0002163767}}</ref>

By the 1870s, the Marlboroughs were in severe financial trouble and in 1875 the [[John Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough|7th Duke]] sold the ''Marriage of [[Cupid and Psyche]]'', together with the famed [[Marlborough gems]], at auction for £10,000. However, this was not enough to save the family. In 1880, the 7th Duke was forced to petition Parliament to break the protective entail on the Palace and its contents. This was achieved under the [[Blenheim Settled Estates Act 1880]] and the door was now open for wholesale dispersal of Blenheim and its contents.<ref>Purcell, p. 251</ref><ref>Until the 1880s, the [[Fee tail|Law of Entail]] severely restricted the ability of an individual to sell an inherited property, including books. The restriction could only be circumvented by resorting to, expensive, private civil legislation, as was the Blenheim Settled Estates Act 1880. The [[Settled Land Acts|Settled Land Act 1882]] made the provisions contained in the Blenheim Act more easily and widely available.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/8a1d95ac-75e8-3bc4-bfc5-f64ef3660fa7|first1=Jo|last1=Klett|first2=John|last2=Hodgson|title=Catalogue of the Sunderland Library|publisher=University of Manchester Library via Jisc|access-date=5 September 2022}}</ref> The first victim was the great Sunderland Library which was sold in 1882, including such volumes as ''The Epistles of Horace'', printed at [[Caen]] in 1480, and the works of [[Josephus]], printed at [[Verona]] in 1648. The 18,000 volumes raised almost £60,000. The sales continued to denude the palace: [[Raffaello Santi|Raphael]]'s ''[[Ansidei Madonna]]'' was sold for £70,000; [[Van Dyck]]'s [[Equestrian Portrait of Charles I]] realised £17,500; and finally, the "pièce de résistance" of the collection, [[Peter Paul Rubens]]' ''Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment, and Their Son Peter Paul, and Their Son Frans (1633–1678)'', which had been given by the city of [[Brussels]] to the 1st Duke in 1704, was also sold, and is now in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437532 |title=Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment (1614–1673), and Their Son Frans (1633–1678)|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |access-date=9 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1981.238/|title=Rubens, His Wife Helena Fourment (1614–1673)|publisher=Metropolitan Museum|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref>

These sums of money, vast by the standards of the day, failed to cover the debts and the maintenance of the great palace remained beyond the Marlboroughs' resources. These had always been small in relation to their ducal rank and the size of their house. The British agricultural depression, which started in the 1870s, added to the family's problems. When the [[Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough|9th Duke]] inherited in 1892, the land was generating dwindling income.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.blenheimpalace.com/worldheritagesite/downloads/WHSMP-Web-version-with-maps.pdf|publisher=Blenheim Palace|title=Revised Management Plan|page=26|year=2017|access-date=30 July 2018}}</ref>