MARLBOROUGH, a market town and municipal borough of Wiltshire, England, 75i m. W. of London by rail. Pop. (1931) 3,492. It is near Savernake forest, and in the valley of the river Kennet.
The antiquity of Marlborough is shown by the Castle mound, an earthwork, which local legend makes the grave of Merlin; and the name of Marlborough has been regarded as a corrupt form of Merlin's berg or rock. Near the site of the modern Marl borough (Merleberge, Marleberge) was originally a Roman castrum called Cunetio, and later there was a Norman fortress in which William I. established a mint. In Domesday it was royal demesne. The castle, built under Henry I., by Roger, bishop of Salisbury, was held for Matilda against Stephen, and became a favourite residence of Henry II., Savernake being a royal deer park. In 1267 Henry III. held his last parliament here, at which the Statute of Marlborough was passed. Marlborough was cap tured by the royal forces in 1642, and partly burnt. The town was constituted a suffragan see by Henry II. Sacheverell, the politician and divine, was born here in 1674, and educated at the grammar school. In 1653 the town was nearly destroyed by fire, and it again suffered in 1679 and 1690; after which an act was passed forbidding the use of thatch. Marlborough, from its
position on the Great Bath road, was a famous coaching centre.
The first charter was granted by John in 1204, and conferred a gild merchant, together with freedom from all pleas except pleas of the Crown and from all secular exactions by sea and land. Later charters were obtained from Henry IV. in 1407 and from Elizabeth in 1576. The former granted some additional exemp tions whilst the latter incorporated the town under the title of mayor and burgesses of Marlborough. Marlborough returned two members to parliament until 1867 when the number was reduced to one, and in 1885 the representation was merged in that of the county.
There is one broad street in which a majority of the houses are Jacobean, those on the north side having projecting upper storeys. St. Peter's church, a Perpendicular building, is said to have been the scene of the ordination of Cardinal Wolsey in 1498. The church of Preshute, largely rebuilt, but preserving its Norman pillars, has a curious piscina, and a large black basalt font dating from 1100-50. There is a i6th century grammar school. Marl borough college was opened in 1843, originally for the sons of clergymen. The town is mainly agricultural.