The Duke of Buckingham by Rubens

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (28 August 1592 – 23 August 1628) (IPA pronunciation: [vɪ'lɜ(r)z]) was one of the most rewarded royal courtiers in all history. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (681x960, 62 KB) Description: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham Date: 1625 Painter: Peter Paul Rubens File links The following pages link to this file: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (681x960, 62 KB) Description: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham Date: 1625 Painter: Peter Paul Rubens File links The following pages link to this file: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham ... is the 240th day of the year (241st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1592 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1628 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

Early life

He was born in Brooksby, Leicestershire in August 1592, the son of the minor gentleman Sir George Villiers (1550-1604). His mother, Mary (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 Eliot. Leicestershire ( IPA: (RP), IPA: (locally)), abbreviation Leics. ... For other persons named George Villiers, see George Villiers (disambiguation). ... Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham (1570 - 1632) was the daughter of Anthony Beaumont of Glenfield, Leicestershire. ... Sir John Eliot (April 11, 1592 - November 27, 1632), English statesman, son of Richard Eliot (1546 - June 22, 1609) and Bridget Carswell (c. ...

Villiers took very well to the training; he could dance well, fence 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 Somerset. A fence in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania. ... The Right Honourable Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, KG, PC (sometimes spelt Kerr) ( 1590 – July 17, 1645), was a Scottish politician, and favourite of King James I of England. ...

Court life

Following Villiers's introduction to James during the King's progress of that year, the King is said to have fallen deeply in love with him, calling Villiers his 'sweet child and wife.' Villiers reciprocated this 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". Villiers gained support from those opposed to the existing favorite, Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset. When Somerset was disgraced after the Overbury affair, his position was rapidly taken by Villiers. The Right Honourable Robert Carr, 1st Earl of Somerset, KG, PC (sometimes spelt Kerr) ( 1590 – July 17, 1645), was a Scottish politician, and favourite of King James I of England. ... Thomas Overbury Sir Thomas Overbury (1581 - September 15, 1613), English poet and essayist, and the victim of one of the most sensational crimes in English history, was the son of Nicholas Overbury, of Bourton-on-the-Hill, and was born at Compton Scorpion, near Ilmington, in Warwickshire. ...

Under the King's patronage he prospered greatly. Villiers was knighted in 1615 as a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, and was rapidly advanced through the Peerage: 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 Tudor period, Buckingham was left as the highest-ranking subject outside the Royal Family. Events June 2 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France. ... For other uses, see Peerage (disambiguation). ... Year 1616 (MDCXVI) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Monday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Events Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Ahmed I (1603-1617) to Mustafa I (1617-1623). ... For a bill proposed in USA in 1998, see Bill 1618. ... Year 1623 (MDCXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...

In the 1620s Villiers acquired York House, Strand, which, apart from an interlude during the English Civil War remained in the family until George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham sold it to developers for £30,000 in 1672. He made it a condition of the sale that his name and title should be commemorated by George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street, some of which have survived into the twenty-first century. (Villiers Street runs along the eastern side of Charing Cross railway station). York Water Gate and the Adelphi from the River by Moonlight, circa 1850. ... For other uses, see English Civil War (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The building on Villiers Street off the Strand in London where Kipling rented rooms from 1889 to 1891. ... Charing Cross Charing Cross railway station is a central London railway terminus. ...

Marriage

Buckingham with his wife Katherine Manners, their daughter Mary and son George, 1628

Buckingham married the daughter of the 6th Earl of Rutland, Lady Katherine Manners, later suo jure Baroness de Ros, on 16 May 1620 despite the objections of her father. Buckingham was happy to grant valuable royal monopolies to her family. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 878 pixel, file size: 245 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 549 pixelsFull resolution (1280 × 878 pixel, file size: 245 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Faithful reproductions of two-dimensional original works cannot attract copyright in the U.S. according to the rule in Bridgeman Art Library v. ... Francis Manners Rutland, 6th Earl of Rutland (1578-1632), was an English nobleman. ... Katherine Manners, 19th Baroness de Ros (died ~1649) was the daughter and heir of the 18th Baron de Ros. ... The title of Baron de Ros (pronounced Roose) is the most ancient baronial title in the Peerage of England. ... May 16 is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1620 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...

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 plantation 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 parliaments, 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 1623-4 were largely nullified by 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 had accompanied Charles I, then Prince of Wales, to Spain 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 Madrid; 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 von Mansfeld expedition to recover the Palatinate (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. Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Maria Anna Maria Anna was the younger daughter of King Philip III of Spain. ... This article is about the Spanish capital. ... Events January 24 - Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa. ... Henrietta Maria Henrietta Maria (November 25, 1609 - September 10, 1669) was Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (June 13, 1625 - January 30, 1649) through her marriage to Charles I. The U.S. state of Maryland (in Latin, Terra Maria) was so named in her honour by Cæcilius Calvert... Ernst von Mansfeld Ernst, Graf von Mansfield (c. ... A palatinate is a territory administered by a count palatine, originally the direct representative of the sovereign, but later the hereditary ruler of the territory subject to the crowns overlordship. ... Events March 27 - Prince Charles Stuart becomes King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland. ...

Buckingham led an expedition to repeat the actions of Sir Francis Drake by seizing the main Spanish port at Cádiz 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 taking back to ship. This article is about the Elizabethan naval commander. ... Location Location of Cádiz Coordinates : Time Zone : General information Native name Cádiz (Spanish) Spanish name Cádiz Postal code – Website http://www. ...

This was followed by Buckingham leading the Army and the Navy to sea to intercept an anticipated Spanish silver fleet from Mexico and Spanish Latin America. This ambush never materialised as the Spanish were forewarned by their intelligence and easily avoided the expected ambush. With supplies running out and men sick and dying from starvation and disease, the fleet limped home, embarrassed. A treasure fleet is being loaded with riches. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ...

Buckingham then negotiated with the French regent, Cardinal Richelieu, for English ships to aid Richelieu in his fight against the French Protestants (Huguenots), in return for French aid against the Spanish occupying the Palatinate. The aid never materialised, and Parliament was disgusted and horrified at 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 fault of treachery by Richelieu, formulated an alliance among the churchman's many enemies, a policy which included support for the very Huguenots whom he had recently attacked. For other uses, see Richelieu (disambiguation). ... From the 16th to the 18th century the name Huguenot was applied to a member of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, historically known as the French Calvinists. ...

War with Hapsburg Austria, France, and Spain

When Parliament attempted to impeach him for the failure of the Cádiz expedition (1625), the King had the house dissolved in August before they could put Buckingham on trial. This prompted Buckingham to declare war on France, putting him into conflict with the Bourbons of France and the Hapsburgs of Spain and Germany, by far the two most powerful dynasties in Europe. Depiction of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, then President of the United States, in 1868. ... Flag of the Habsburg Monarchy; also used as the flag of the Austrian Empire until the Ausgleich of 1867. ...

Death

In 1627 Buckingham led another failure: an attempt to aid his new Huguenot allies besieged at La Rochelle in France. He lost over 4000 men out of a force of 7000. While organizing a second campaign he was stabbed and killed at Portsmouth on August 23, 1628 by John Felton, an army officer who had been wounded in the earlier military adventure. Felton was hanged in November and Buckingham was buried in Westminster Abbey. His tomb bears a Latin inscription translating: "The Enigma of the World". Events A Dutch ship makes the first recorded sighting of the coast of South Australia. ... Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle, Henri Motte, 1881. ... is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1628 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... John Felton (died November, 1628) was an English Puritan who stabbed George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham to death in Portsmouth, because he believed that he harmed too many people. ... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ... For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ... Inscriptions are words or letters written, engraved, painted, or otherwise traced on a surface and can appear in contexts both small and monumental. ...

The memory of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, is held sacred by the Villiers Club an exclusive dining and debating society at Oxford. This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ...

In fiction

A fictionalised Buckingham is one of the characters in Alexandre Dumas, père's The Three Musketeers, which paints him as a lover of Anne of Austria and deals with his assassination by Felton. In Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel, El capitán Alatriste, Buckingham appears briefly while on his expedition to Spain in 1623 with Charles I. He is also a central character in a novel by Philippa Gregory, Earthly Joys. “Alexandre Dumas” redirects here. ... For other uses, see The Three Musketeers (disambiguation). ... Louis XIII by Philippe de Champaigne Anne of Austria (September 22, 1601 - January 20, 1666) was Queen Consort of France and Navarre and Regent for her son, Louis XIV of France. ... Spanish stamp (2002) tribute to Captain Alatriste, Pérez-Revertes most famous character. ... Captain Alatriste (El capitán Alatriste) is a series of books by Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte. ... Year 1623 (MDCXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ... Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, King of Scotland and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. ... Philippa Gregory (born 9 January 1954) is a British novelist, mainly associated with the historical fiction genre. ...

Family

Buckingham's daughter, Lady Mary Villiers, was the wife of the Royalist 1st Duke of Richmond. Richmond was the grandson of the 1st Duke of Lennox of the Seigneurs d'Aubigny Stuarts. His elder son Charles (1626 - 1627) died as an infant and the title was inherited by his younger son George. Mary Villiers, later Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, with her cousin Charles Hamilton, Lord Arran, as Cupid, about 1636 Mary Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of Lennox (1622–1685), formerly Lady Mary Villiers, was the daughter of the 1st Duke of Buckingham. ... Prince Rupert of the Rhine Cavaliers was the name used by Parliamentarians for the Royalist supporters of King Charles I during the English Civil War (1642–1651). ... James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox (1612-1655) was a Scottish nobleman. ... Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox (1542–May 26, 1583) was the son of John Stewart, 5th Seigneur dAubigny. ... Seigneur means, in French, lord. The term is often used in the Medieval system of Feudalism and Manorialism where it means the possessor of a seigneurie or fief. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

References

Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about:

Buckingham, George Villiers, 1st Duke of

• Roger Lockyer, Buckingham, the Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, 1592-1628 (Longman, 1981).
• Paul Bloomfield, Uncommon People. A Study of England's Elite (London: Hamilton, 1955) (about the descendants of George Villiers).
• Victor Treadwell, "Buckingham and Ireland, 1616-1628. A study of Anglo-Irish politics" (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1998).
• Some text modified from public domain 11th Edition Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911