Sir John Vanbrugh designed the palace for John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. It was largely paid for by the nation in gratitude for his victory over the French and Bavarians at Blenheim in 1704. The deerpark surrounding the house was landscaped by "Capability" Brown.  It was the birthplace of Winston Churchill.

Blenheim is on the edge of the pretty town of Woodstock which is eight miles North of Oxford.  Before the Norman Conquest, when the Wychwood Forest stretched from the Cotswolds to London, English Kings had lodges in Woodstock - 'a clearing in the woods' giving a possible derivation of its name.  King Alfred is reputed to have stayed at Woodstock in 890.  Ethelred the Unready held a council in the town suggesting its size had grown fit to accommodate a king.  In 1279, Henry II established a market and by the 13th century it had grown to the status of a Borough.

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