George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628) (surname "villers") was the
favouriteA favourite , or favorite , was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In medieval and Early Modern Europe, among other times and places, the term is used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler...
, claimed by some to be the lover, of King
James I of EnglandJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
Despite a very patchy political and military record he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, until he was assassinated. He was one of the most rewarded royal courtiers in all history.
Early life
He was born in Brooksby,
LeicestershireLeicestershire or , abbreviation Leics.is a landlocked county in central England. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
, in August 1592, the son of the minor gentleman Sir
George VilliersSir George Villiers, of Brokesby was a minor member of the English gentry, notable as the father of the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham...
(1550-1604). His mother,
MaryMary Villers, Countess of Buckingham is perhaps best known as the mother of the royal favourite Sir George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. She was the daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, a direct descendant of Henry de Beaumont.She became the second wife of Sir George...
(1570 - 1632), daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire, who was left a widow early, educated him for a courtier's life, sending him to France with
Sir John EliotSir John Eliot , English statesman who was serially imprisoned, where he finally died, by King Charles I for advocating the rights and privileges of Parliament.-Family and early life:...
.
Villiers took very well to the training; he could dance well,
fenceFencing is a family of sports and activities that feature armed combat involving cutting, stabbing, or bludgeoning weapons that are directly manipulated by hand, rather than shot, thrown or positioned. Examples include swords, knives, pikes, bayonets, batons, clubs, and similar weapons...
well, and speak a little French. In August 1614, Villiers, reputedly "the handsomest-bodied man in all of England," was brought before the king, in the hope that the king would take a fancy to him, diminishing the power at court of then-favourite
Robert Carr, 1st Earl of SomersetRobert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, , KG, PC , was a Scottish politician, and favourite of King James I of England whose involvement in the murder of his mentor, Sir Thomas Overbury, caused great scandal....
.
Court life
Following Villiers' introduction to James during the king's progress of that year, the king developed a strong affection for Villiers, calling him his 'sweet child and wife'; the
personal relationships of JamesThe personal relationships of James I of England included relationships with his male courtiers and his marriage to Anne of Denmark, with whom he fathered children...
are a much debated topic, with Villiers making the last of a succession of favourites on whom James lavished affection and rewards. The extent to which there was a sexual element, or a physical sexual relationship, involved in these cases remains controversial. Villiers reciprocated the king's love and wrote to James: "I naturally so love your person, and adore all your other parts, which are more than ever one man had" and "I desire only to live in the world for your sake". Restoration of
Apethorpe HallApethorpe Hall in Apethorpe, Northamptonshire, England is a Grade I listed country house, dating back to the 15th century.The house is built around three courtyards lying on an east-west axis and is approximately by in area...
in 2004-2008 revealed a previously unknown passage linking his bedchamber with that of James.
Villiers gained support from those opposed to the current favourite, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, and under the king's patronage he prospered greatly. Villiers was knighted in 1615 as a
Gentleman of the BedchamberGentleman of the Bedchamber was an office in a European royal household beginning from about the early in the 11th century. They were invariably noblemen, and often important ones, as the regular access to the monarch the role brought was the invaluable commodity of the courtier...
, and was rapidly advanced through the
peerageThe Peerage is a system of titles in the United Kingdom, which represents the upper ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system. The term is used both collectively to refer to the entire body of titles, and individually to refer to a specific title...
: he was created
Baron Whaddon and
Viscount Villiers in 1616,
Earl of Buckingham in 1617,
Marquess of Buckingham in 1618 and finally
Earl of Coventry and
Duke of Buckingham in 1623. After the reductions in the peerage that had taken place during the
TudorThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
period, Buckingham was left as the highest-ranking subject outside the royal family.
In the 1620s, Villiers acquired
York House, StrandYork House in the Strand in London was one of a string of mansions which once stood along the route from the City of London to the royal court at Westminster. It was built as the London home of the Bishops of Norwich not later than 1237, and around 300 years later it was acquired by King Henry VIII...
, the street linking the
City of LondonThe City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
to that of
WestminsterThe City of Westminster is a borough of London with city status. It is located west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, and forms part of Inner London and the bulk of London's central area....
. Apart from an interlude during the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
, the property remained in the family until
his sonGeorge Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, KG, PC, FRS , was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
sold it to developers for £30,000 in 1672. He made it a condition of the sale that his name and title be commemorated by George Street,
Villiers StreetVilliers Street is a street in London connecting The Strand with The Embankment. It was built by Nicholas Bourbon in the 1670s on the site of York House, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham whose name the street commemorates...
, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street, some of which have survived into the twenty-first century.
Marriage
Buckingham married the daughter of the
6th Earl of RutlandFrancis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland and 18th Baron de Ros KG , was an English nobleman. Despite a brief imprisonment for his involvement in the Essex Rebellion of 1601, he became prominent at the court of James I. He lived at Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire...
,
Lady Katherine MannersKatherine Manners, Duchess of Buckingham and 19th Baroness de Ros , also known as Catherine, was the daughter and heir of the 18th Baron de Ros. She was known as the richest woman in Britain, apart from royalty...
, later
suo jure Baroness de RosThe title of Baron de Ros is the most ancient baronial title in the Peerage of England. The title of Baron de Ros (pronounced "Roose") is the most ancient baronial title in the Peerage of England. The title of Baron de Ros (pronounced "Roose") is the most ancient baronial title in the Peerage of...
, on 16 May 1620 despite the objections of her father. Buckingham was happy to grant valuable royal monopolies to her family.
Ireland
From 1616, Buckingham established a dominant influence in Irish affairs, beginning with the appointment of his client, Sir Oliver St John, as Lord Deputy, 1616-1622. Thence, he acquired control of the Irish customs farm (1618), dominated Irish patronage at court, particularly with the sale of Irish titles and honours, and (from 1618) began to build substantial Irish estates for himself, his family and clients - with the aid of a
plantationPlantations in 16th and 17th century Ireland were established throughout the country by the confiscation of lands occupied by Gaelic clans and Hiberno-Norman dynasties, but principally in the provinces of Munster and Ulster. The lands were then granted by Crown authority to colonists from Britain...
lobby, composed of official clients in Dublin. To the same end, he secured the creation of an Irish Court of Wards in 1622. Buckingham's influence thus crucially sustained a forward Irish plantation policy into the 1620s.
Relations with Parliament, 1621-1624
The 1621 Parliament began an investigation into monopolies and other abuses in England and extended it later to Ireland; in this first session, Buckingham was quick to side with the Parliament to avoid action being taken against him. However, the king's decision in the summer of 1621 to send a commission of enquiry, including parliamentary firebrands, to Ireland threatened to expose Buckingham's growing, often clandestine interests there. Knowing that, in the summer, the king had assured the Spanish ambassador that the Parliament would not be allowed to imperil a Spanish matrimonial alliance, he therefore surreptitiously instigated a conflict between the Parliament and the king over the Spanish Match, which resulted in a premature dissolution of the Parliament in December 1621 and a hobbling of the Irish commission in 1622. Irish reforms nevertheless introduced by Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, in 1623-1624 were largely nullified by the impeachment and disgrace of the pacific Lord Treasurer in the violently anti-Spanish 1624 parliament - spurred on by Buckingham and Prince Charles.
Foreign affairs
In 1623, Buckingham accompanied
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
, then Prince of Wales, to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
for marriage negotiations regarding the Infanta Maria. The negotiations had long been stuck, but it is believed that Buckingham's crassness was key to the total collapse of agreement; the Spanish ambassador asked Parliament to have Buckingham executed for his behaviour in
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. It is the third-most populous municipality in the European Union after Greater London and Berlin, and its metropolitan area is the third-most populous city by urban area in the European Union after Paris and London.The city is located on the river...
; but Buckingham gained popularity by calling for war with Spain on his return. He headed further marriage negotiations, but when, in 1624, the betrothal to Henrietta Maria of France was announced, the choice of a Catholic was widely condemned. Buckingham's popularity suffered further when he was blamed for the failure of the military expedition under the command of
Ernst von MansfeldErnst, Graf von Mansfeld was a German military commander.-Biography:Mansfeld was an illegitimate son of Graf Peter Ernst von Mansfeld , and passed his early years in his father's palace at Luxembourg....
, a famous German mercenary general, sent to the continent to recover the Palatinate (1625), which had belonged to
Frederick V, Elector PalatineFrederick V was Elector Palatine , and, as Frederick I , King of Bohemia...
, son-in-law of King
James I of EnglandJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
. However, when the Duke of York became King Charles I, Buckingham was the only man to maintain his position from the court of James.
Buckingham led
an expeditionThe Cádiz Expedition of 1625 was a naval expedition against Spain by English and Dutch forces.The plan was put forward because after the dissolution of the parliament of 1625, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral wanted to undertake an expedition that would match the exploits of the heroes of...
to repeat the actions of
Sir Francis DrakeSir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral , was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, a renowned pirate, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588, subordinate...
by seizing the main Spanish port at
CádizCádiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Cádiz Province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
and burning the fleet in its harbour. Though his plan was tactically sound, landing further up the coast and marching the militia army on the city, the troops were ill-equipped, ill-disciplined and ill-trained. Coming upon a warehouse filled with wine, they simply got drunk, and the attack was called off. The English army briefly occupied a small port further down the coast before reboarding its ships.
This was followed by Buckingham leading the Army and the Navy to sea to intercept an anticipated
Spanish silver fleetThe Spanish treasure fleets was a convoy system adopted by the Spanish Empire from 1566 to 1790...
from
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and Spanish
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. However, the Spanish were forewarned by their intelligence and easily avoided the planned ambush. With supplies running out and men sick and dying from starvation and disease, the fleet limped home in embarrassment.
Buckingham then negotiated with the French regent, Cardinal Richelieu, for English ships to aid Richelieu in his fight against the French Protestants (
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
s), in return for French aid against the Spanish occupying the Palatinate. Seven English warships participated in operations against
La RochelleLa Rochelle is a city in south-western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department....
and in the Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (1625), but Parliament was disgusted and horrified at the thought of English Protestants fighting French Protestants. The plan only fuelled their fears of crypto-Catholicism at court. Buckingham himself, believing that the failure of his enterprise was the result of treachery by Richelieu, formulated an alliance among the churchman's many enemies, a policy that included support for the very Huguenots whom he had recently attacked.
War with Habsburg Austria, France, and Spain
When the Commons attempted to
impeachImpeachment is the first of two stages in a specific process for a legislative body to consider whether or not to forcibly remove a government official from office. The impeachment itself brings the charges against the official...
him for the failure of the
Cádiz Expedition (1625)The Cádiz Expedition of 1625 was a naval expedition against Spain by English and Dutch forces.The plan was put forward because after the dissolution of the parliament of 1625, the Duke of Buckingham, Lord High Admiral wanted to undertake an expedition that would match the exploits of the heroes of...
, the King dissolved Parliament in June to prevent his impeachment.
Death
In 1627, Buckingham led another failure: an attempt to aid his new
HuguenotThe Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Since the eighteenth century, Huguenots have been commonly designated "French Protestants", the title being suggested by their German co-religionists or "Calvinists"...
allies besieged at
La RochelleThe Siege of La Rochelle was a result of a war between the French royal forces of Louis XIII of France and the Huguenots of La Rochelle in 1627-1628...
in France, by leading the
Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré (1627)The Siege of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, also Siege of St. Martin's , occurred in the French isle of Ile de Ré around the fortress of the city of Saint-Martin-de-Ré, when Duke of Buckingham tried to occupy the island in 1627...
. He lost more than 4,000 of a force of 7,000 men. While organising a second campaign in
PortsmouthPortsmouth is a city located in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the United Kingdom's only island city and is located on Portsea Island. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed Pompey...
in 1628, he was stabbed to death (August 23) at the
Greyhound PubThe Greyhound was a Public House , in High Street, Old Portsmouth, famous as the site of the murder of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1628.-In Letters:...
; the assassin was John Felton, an army officer who had been wounded in the earlier military adventure. Felton believed he had been passed over for promotion by Buckingham. Felton was hanged in November.
Buckingham was buried in
Westminster AbbeyThe Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster...
. Buckingham's tomb bears a
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
inscription translated as: "The Enigma of the World." The memory of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, is held sacred by the Villiers Club, an exclusive dining and debating society at
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
University.
In fiction
A fictionalised Buckingham is one of the characters in
Alexandre Dumas, pèreAlexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world...
's
The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to become a guard of the musketeers...
, which paints him as a lover of
Anne of AustriaAnne of Austria was Queen Consort of France and Navarre and regent for her son, Louis XIV of France. During her regency Cardinal Mazarin served as France's chief minister...
and deals with his assassination by Felton. In
Arturo Pérez-ReverteArturo Pérez-Reverte Gutiérrez is a Spanish novelist and journalist. He worked as a war correspondent for twenty-one years . His first novel, El húsar, set in the Napoleonic Wars, was released in 1986. He is well known outside Spain for his "Alatriste" series of novels...
's novel,
El capitán Alatriste, Buckingham appears briefly while on his expedition to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
in 1623 with
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
. He is also a central character in novels by
Philippa Gregory-Early life and academic career:Philippa Gregory was born in Kenya. When she was two years old, her family moved to England. She was a "rebel" at school, but eventually decided to go to university and was educated at the University of Sussex. She worked in BBC radio for two years before attending...
,
Earthly Joys, and
Evelyn Anthony Evelyn Anthony is the pen name of Evelyn Ward Thomas, a British female writer.-Life and work:In her youth during the Second World War she was educated largely at home, rather than at school...
,
Charles, The King. He also appears, played by
Marcus HuttonMarcus Hutton is an actor and voice over artist who trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Played Nathan Cuddington in Channel 4's soap opera Brookside from 1998 - 2000. He has also voiced hundreds of radio and TV ads in the UK and around the world...
, in the
Doctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s police box...
audio drama
The Church and the CrownThe Church and the Crown is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Plot:...
, in which he leads an aborted English invasion of France in 1626.
Family
Buckingham's daughter, Lady Mary Villiers, was the wife of the
RoyalistCavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War . Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.-Early usage:...
1st Duke of RichmondJames Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox was a Scottish nobleman. He was the eldest son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox and his wife Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton....
. Richmond was the grandson of the
1st Duke of LennoxEsmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox was the son of John Stewart, 5th Lord of Aubigny. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature, upright, just, and gentle"....
of the
SeigneurLord is a title with various meanings. It can denote a prince or a feudal superior . The title today is mostly used in connection with the peerage of the United Kingdom or its predecessor countries, although some users of the title do not themselves hold peerages, and use it 'by courtesy'...
s d'Aubigny Stuarts. His elder son Charles (1626 - 1627) died as an infant and the title was inherited by his younger son
GeorgeGeorge Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, KG, PC, FRS , was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
.
External links
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