Blenheim Palace, in Oxfordshire, whose construction was started in 1705, is an extraordinary monument to both national and personal glory, and the story of its design and development reveals much about the national and international political struggles of the early 18th century. It also tells of the different tastes in classical architecture that divided artistic opinion in the years between 1700 and 1730. It is a palace built, almost literally, on blood. The palace - and the estate in which it stands - was the gift of a grateful monarch and nation to a general - the Duke of Marlborough - for an epoch-making victory in 1704 over the French armies of Louis XIV. So it can hardly be said to be a typical English country house, especially since its massive and theatrical Baroque architecture - the work of Sir John Vanbrugh and Nicholas Hawksmoor - is packed with military references and unsubtle triumphal symbolism. The process through which Blenheim Palace was created is not only a story of high drama - of collapsing finances and political in-fighting and betrayal - but also throws light on the way in which a great work of art, a complex and corporate enterprise, is achieved.