The tour of the Palace finishes in the Chapel, reached from the west colonnade. It is reached down a splendid double staircase and has another elaborate plaster ceiling. There is a simple wooden altar with a wood panelled reredos. The pews face into the centre and the splendid memorial to the First Duke.
The chapel was finished in 1733, eleven years after Marlborough’s death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. Sarah designed the suitably huge monument to him on the south wall and Marlborough’s body was reinterred here beside Sarah after her death. it shows an admiring Sarah looking up at John Churchill with their two young sons who both died before their father. Their daughters are forgotten. On either side of the sarcophagus are History with her quill and Fame with her trumpet. The sarcophagus itself is crushing the last enemy of all, envy.
On the wall opposite is the memorial to Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, father of Sir Winston Churchill.
All the information about Blenheim Palace with my pictures can be found “here.”:http://wasleys.org.uk/eleanor/stately_homes_castles/england/westmidlands/blenheim/index.html
