A portrait depicting John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), gifted to Sir Winston Churchill in 1942, was recently found to have been misdated, thanks to conservation work ...

Ironically, the Duke of Marlborough’s second marriage was to a woman named… Gladys Deacon. Consuelo found a love match in Jacques Balsan, a textile manufacturing heir and aviation pioneer.

After their divorce in 1907, the press got wind of the exact terms of the Vanderbilt and Marlborough’s agreement. The Duke was to receive $100,000 yearly—around $3.2 million today.