[588] The Churchills were again permitted to dwell under the royal roof.

But William did not at first include them in the peace which he had made with their mistress.
Marlborough remained excluded from military and political employment; and it was not without much difficulty that he was admitted into the circle at Kensington, and permitted to kiss the royal hand.

[589] The feeling with which he was regarded by the King explains why Anne was not appointed Regent.

The Regency of Anne would have been the Regency of Marlborough; and it is not strange that a man whom it was not thought safe to entrust with any office in the State or the army should not have been entrusted with the whole government of the kingdom.
Had Marlborough been of a proud and vindictive nature he might have been provoked into raising another quarrel in the royal family, and into forming new cabals in the army.

But all his passions, except ambition and avarice, were under strict regulation.