View of the Park at Blenheim from the South-West, with Blenheim Palace and The Grand Bridge in the distance and the tower of Woodstock Church beyond

The Royal Manor of Woodstock and the funds to build a palace were presented by Queen Anne to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), in gratitude for his defeat of the French at Blenheim on the Danube, in 1704. Vanbrugh was chosen as the architect having impressed the Duke with his model for Castle Howard which he was building for the Earl of Carlisle and works, supervised by Nicholas Hawksmoor, began on June 1705. The original park layout by Vanbrugh and Henry Wise was in a formal style but this was almost entirely swept away in 1764 by Capability Brown who replanted the park and created the lake.