When the Sunderland family went into exile in The Netherlands, the 15-year-old Charles, Lord Spencer, went to study at the University of Utrecht. John Evelyn described him as "a youth of extraordinary hopes, very learned for his age". However, this promise was not to be fulfilled.
He was about twenty-one when he married Lady Arabella Cavendish and a fortune of 25,000 pounds. After a short but happy marriage producing one girl, Lady Arabella died of small-pox in June 1698. The loss of "Bel" was sorely felt, yet while Charles was prostrated with grief, his father was already arranging a second marriage for him.The Duke of Marlborough was reluctant to have his gifted and
beautiful daughter, Lady Anne Churchill, marry someone so grief-stricken; however, within a few months Charles fell in love with Anne and they married in January 1700.
At the time of King James II, the life of Charles's sister, Lady Elizabeth Spencer, was both used and wasted for the sake of the Catholic religion. The Irish Earl of Clancarty had been brought up in
England by his Protestant mother and, to prevent this "catch" falling into Protestant hands, James II and the 2nd Earl of Sunderland, Elizabeth's father, invited the young Earl to Court and coerced him to
marry the thirteen-year-old Lady Elizabeth. The marriage took place but was not consummated, Clancarty departing for Ireland and a wild life while Elizabeth remained at Althorp.
By the time she was twenty-six, Elizabeth was living by herself in London. After all this time Clancarty quietly came to London and tried to pursuade her to consummate the marriage and, after an initial
refusal, she reluctantly gave in. In the meantime, her house-porter considered it his business to inform Lady Elizabeth's brother of Clancarty's presence. Lord Spencer, as he was then, gathered several
soldiers and broke into his sister's bedroom. Finding the couple in bed, they dragged the Jacobite Earl of Clancarty off to Newgate Prison.
Disowned by her own family, Lady Elizabeth approached the king and begged for her husband's life and freedom; but when these were granted, Clancarty rushed back to Ireland and the arms of his mistress.
In 1702 Charles, Lord Spencer, became 3rd Earl of Sunderland. He was a prickly person lacking in charm, and being a Whig, was never interested in the Jacobite cause. As well, unpopular because of his
bad manners, he was rude to everybody from Queen Anne downwards.
However, he loved books and built up one of the most important libraries. At one stage the King of Denmark offered 30,000 pounds for it. Due to his father- and mother-in-law, the Duke and Duchess of
Marlborough, he became Secretary of State in 1706. Four years later, after an error of judgement about a religious matter, he was dismissed from office. Queen Anne, though she disliked him considerably,
softened the blow by offering him a large pension, but this he haughtily refused with: "If he could not have the honour of serving his country he would not plunder it".
From now on he cast his hope on the Hanoverian successors; but to his dismay, when the Queen died in 1714, he was not among the Lords Justices but was given the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland instead.
Nevertheless he held office as Secretary of State and Lord President of the Council though he never had real power.
From a happy second marriage, five children were born. However this marriage did not last very long as Anne, Countess of Sunderland, died in the spring of 1715 of pleuritic fever. The children of Charles and Anne were then taken to Anne's mother, Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough.
When Charles, Earl of Sunderland, remarried Judith Tichborne eighteen months later, the Duchess of Marlborough was upset about the financial settlements. She spoke sharply to Sunderland who, being one of the few who dared stand up to her, answered her in the same manner and they never spoke to one another again. In spite of this, the children still stayed with their grandmother.
When the "South Sea Bubble" burst in 1721, he was forced to resign although innocent. He then became Groom of the Stole, a Court function. However, he did not enjoy this post so close to the king for
very long due to his death, suspected of having been poisoned, on 19 April 1722.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas