In this German article, we see a French sniper celebrating his shot, sent downrange at Northumberland, England, but instead of fighting the English, he was on joint exercise with them. To further the irony, the German paper, Der Spiegel, published his remarkable celebration, about which I have a few observations to make.
He may not realize it, but his picture marks the hopeful end of over 1,000 years of combat between his countrymen, and the English. Think about how history twists…
Go back 350 years before our French sniper. English warrior Sir Winston Churchill picked the losing side in England’s civil war. This Winston lost the family estate. Deprived of land, his young son John went to work as a page to the Duke of York. The Duke’s infantry so impressed John that John joined the King’s Regiment of Foot at 17.
As I said, history is replete with unexpected turns. Stick with me on this. The Duke of York became King James II, and the Duke—now king—remembered the stout-hearted young page and soldier, John Churchill, and promoted him.
The next king, King William of Orange made him an Earl. By1701, King Louis XIV of France had broken his pact with England. When he sparked this war, our formerly broke John, turned young infantryman, and then respected officer, was the Earl of Marlborough and a general of the army. The king sent John Churchill to France.
John caught the French by surprise at Blenheim, in Bavaria, and killed so many that the French army was rendered ineffective. King William had died by then, but his wife, Queen Anne, was so grateful that she elevated our John Churchill to Duke of Marlborough. Besides the better title, she granted him 16,000 beautiful forested acres, and promised him the palace that you may now visit just outside Oxford: Blenheim Palace. Silly me: this hillbilly thought the gatehouse was the palace. The palace is indescribable. It was also extraordinarily expensive to build, and it required years of controversy for the queen’s expression of gratitude to be completed. By that time, our soldier had spend his years; he died after enjoying his earthly reward only a short time. But, the military genius and courage of the 1st Duke of Marlborough were passed to at least one of his descendants.
At Blenheim Palace, you will find a section dedicated to John’s descendant, Winston Churchill, born at the palace as Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill who we all know, continued the family’s leadership and warrior spirit in time of peril.
Now, here is how all of this ties in. You were probably wondering. At the palace’s museum, you will see a sign posted referring to “the old adversary.” It does not refer to Satan. It refers to the French. That is how deeply English-French enmity runs. Ever since the Northmen overran the coast of France and then used their bases on the channel to assault the south England coast, the two peoples have slashed, shot, and cannonaded each other in so many wars that the rest of us are unable to keep account of them all.
Now, though—with the Moslem hordes restless again, with Germany still horrified by the nightmare image of its own world conquest, and with the Russian communists sullenly neutered for now–the English and French have decided that greater enemies threaten to overrun them both. One of the great ironies of history would be a steel-hard alliance among The United Kingdom, France, and Germany. It sounds impossible, but the original Duke of Marlborough would be amazed at the unlikely picture of that French sniper, working out his skills with his British allies. I, for one, pray that western Europeans major on their common interests, while reclaiming their sovereignty.
