The untold story of John Vanbrugh – playwright, rebel and untrained architectural prodigy – whose life captures the upheavals and ambitions that forged modern Britain.John Vanbrugh, the wholly untrained architect of Blenheim Palace, iconic symbol of Britain’s meteoric rise after a century of instability, was born four years after the Restoration of Charles II into the Van Brugg family in 1664. The Van Bruggs were Protestant merchants that had fled the Spanish Netherlands two generations before in search of trade and religious tolerance. Vanbrugh’s first memory was likely escaping the plague and fire of 1665-6. During the Anglo-Dutch War a year later, the Dutch sailed up the Thames, sunk the English fleet and stole its flagship HMS Royal Charles as loot. London was still in ruins. The Dutch Vanbrugh family were outsiders in a country with an uncertain future. Yet by the time Vanbrugh died prematurely in 1726, he had been knighted by the new Hanoverian King, with approval from the first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, in one of the richest countries in Europe.Sandwiched between the Restoration and Industrial Revolution, the era in which Vanbrugh lived is overshadowed. Despite this it was, in many ways, the engine-house of modern Britain, seeing the establishment of much of the apparatus of state that we know today. Politically, it saw the introduction of constitutional monarchy, party politics, union between England and Scotland, and military success against France, Europe’s despotic superpower. Economically, it saw the establishment of the Bank of England, the rise of the stock market and a global trading empire run from the coffeehouses of London. Socially, it saw the rebuilding of London after the fire and plague, huge waves of Protestant refugees, greater religious toleration and a wider embrace of European culture. This was alongside the music of Handel, science of Newton and philosophy of Locke, as well as the birth of modern media.Vanbrugh was lucky to be part of this change – but he was also a central agent of it. His life not only spans but encapsulates the social, political and economic zeitgeist of the changing century. His genius was his ability to apprehend the spirit of the nation at such a fraught and ultimately formative moment. He then relayed this back to the public brilliantly through his plays, gardens, and buildings. As such, Vanbrugh is one of the architects of modern Britain. Indeed, he hoped viewers would find ‘wonder enough in the story’ of his buildings. The wonder of that story is still alive today. It is for this reason that Vanbrugh’s plays are still enjoyed by audiences and his houses are visited by over a million tourists a year, from heads of state to Hollywood film crews. At a time when the foundations of the British identity are in doubt, it is time we consulted one if its foremost designers. As we approach the 300th anniversary of his death in 2026, with his recently discovered time in Mughal India, this book tells the untold story of Vanbrugh and, in so doing, the crucial age in which he lived.
