five years later. In 1685, Parke married Jane Ludwell, the daughter of planter Philip Ludwell. Five years later, he travelled to England with Ludwell to lodge official complaints about the conduct of the royal governor of Virginia, Nathaniel Bacon. After staying in England for two years, Parke once again returned to Virginia in 1692. He subsequently decided to embark on a career in politics, and was elected to the House of Burgesses a year later. In 1695, Parke was appointed to sit on the Virginia Governor's Council. His nascent political career was rife with tensions as he engaged in several disputes and feuds with other politicians, eventually moving back to England in 1701. Military career In 1702, England joined the War of the Spanish Succession, declaring war on France. Parke subsequently attached himself to the English Army as an aide-de-camp to John Churchill, 1st Earl of Marlborough, a senior commander in the army. When Marlborough was dispatched to the Low Countries to take command of a Grand Alliance army of English, Dutch and German troops, Parke accompanied him as part of his general staff. During the war, Parke claimed to hold the rank of colonel and was referred to as such by his European contemporaries. However, historian James Falkner noted that there is no reference to any commission held by Parke in English Army commission lists and registers of the period; Falkner argued that his colonelcy, if it actually existed, was most likely acquired in the Virginia militia. Parke did make several attempts to acquire an officer's commission in the English Army while in Europe, though these were consistently rebuffed. On 2 July 1704, Parke participated in the Battle of Schellenberg, a Grand Alliance victory over a combined Bavarian and French army in Southern Germany. During the battle, he was involved in storming a hill near Donauwörth, being wounded in both ankles by enemy fire. Despite his injuries, he had sufficiently recovered to be at Marlborough's side on 13 August 1704 for the next major battle of the war at Blenheim, which was fought near the village of Höchstädt between a Grand Alliance army and a Franco-Bavarian force; the battle resulted in an allied victory. After the battle, Marlborough wrote a dispatch message describing his victory, which stated in part that "I... beg you will give my duty to the Queen, and let her know her army has had a