The Princess Anne, for refusing to discard his wife, had been turned out of the palace, and deprived of the honours which had often been enjoyed by persons less near to the throne.

Ministers who were supposed to have great influence in the closet had vainly tried to overcome the dislike with which their master regarded the Churchills.

It was not till he had been some time reconciled to his sister in law that he ceased to regard her two favourite servants as his enemies.

So late as the year 1696 he had been heard to say, "If I had been a private gentleman, my Lord Marlborough and I must have measured swords." All these things were now, it seemed, forgotten.

The Duke of Gloucester's household had just been arranged.