Cairnes served in the British Army and took part in the Battle of Blenheim.
Philippe de Clérambault, Count de Palluau, son of Philippe, lieutenant general, killed (drowned) at the Battle of Blenheim
As a result of this work Philips was introduced to Robert Harley and employed to write Blenheim (1705) as a counterblast to Addison's celebration of the Battle of Blenheim in The Campaign.
He was the son of Marshal of France Philippe de Clérambault de La Palluau, and brother of Philippe, who in 1704 as lieutenant general, was responsible for the defense of the village of Blindheim in the Battle of Blenheim and was killed (drowned) during the battle.
The name is an historical in-joke by White; it depends upon knowing that Blenheim was the first of the first duke's great battles, and Malplaquet was his fourth and last.
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The Régiment d'Agenois saw extensive service during the War of the Spanish Succession, being present at the Battle of Fridelingen (1702), the Battle of Blenheim (1704) and the Siege of Kehl (1707).
His daring frontal attack in combination with the deployment of a large part of his army for the flanking movement has similarities with the tactics of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough at the Blenheim battlefield, (situated in the very neighborhood of Rain) or of Frederick the Great at Leuthen.
Born in 1770 in Ilfracombe, Devon to a Huguenot exile family that came to Britain in 1688 with William of Orange, he came from a military family: His great grandfather, Frederick La Penotiere, served in the Royal Irish Regiment in the campaigns of the Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession and received a bounty for his service at the Battle of Blenheim, in 1704.
Churchill was given this palace in honour for his victories over the French and the Bavarians at Blenheim in 1704.