'A Hangdog Whom I Dearly Love' - The Third Earl of Peterborough
Charles Mordaunt, Third Earl of Peterborough, 1658-1735, is probably best remembered as the captor of Barcelona in 1705. Aram Bakshian Jr. shows that, in addition to being a soldier, he was also 'a sailor, courtier, conspirator, diplomat, wit and rake'.
On August 9th, 1722, 'an Open Chariot under a black Velvet Canopy, the Sides of it... adorned with Shields representing his Grace's Victories' carried the body of the Duke of Marlborough to Westminster Abbey. Among the cortege of noble mourners following the great Duke's hearse was a small, emaciated dandy in his sixties. Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, although a former protégé of Marlborough's, and appointed to command the allied forces in Spain at his behest in 1705, had long since broken with his patron, throwing in his lot with the backstairs cabal that toppled Marlborough from power. Never his equal as a commander or statesman, Peterborough had at least lived to enjoy the last laugh, occupying a position of honour in the funeral procession of a man who had come to loathe him and had warned that 'the next misfortune to having friendships [with people like Peterborough] is that of having any dispute with them... care should be taken to have as little to do with them as possible'.
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