Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/392

386 BUCKINGHAM wit, and polished manners gained the favor of James I., who attached him to his court as cupbearer. He hecame a knight and gentle- man of the privy chamber, and on Jan. 1, 1616, was made master of the horse, and installed knight of the order of the garter. In August of the same year he was created baron of Whaddon and Viscount Villiers, and in the fol- lowing January became earl of Buckingham and a privy councillor, and soon afterward his patent was made out as marquis. In 1616 he was appointed lord admiral of England, and subsequently chief justice in eyre of all the parks and forests on the south of Trent, mas- ter of the king's bench office, high steward of Westminster, and constable of Windsor castle. He possessed unbounded influence with the king, and largely controlled the distribution of peerages, offices, church preferments, the direc- tion of the courts of law, departments of gov- ernment, &c. In 1620 he married the daugh- ter of the earl of Rutland. Three years after- ward he accompanied Prince Charles, afterward Charles I., to Madrid to bring about a marriage between the heir of the English throne and the Spanish infanta ; but the match was broken off by Buckingham's arrogance. During his absence in Spain he was created duke, and on his return secured the impeachment (1624) of the earl of Bristol, the English minister at Madrid. His last act during the reign of James was to negotiate in Paris an alliance with Henrietta Maria, daughter of Henry IV. of France, who was married to Charles in June, 1625. After the accession of Charles, Buck- ingham retained all his influence at court. He made alliances with foreign powers and broke them at pleasure, and involved England in war with France and Spain. After the failure of the expedition against Cadiz, he was impeached by the house of commons in 1626, but escaped conviction chiefly through the interference of the king. In the same year he was made chancellor of the university of Cambridge. In 1627 he commanded an expedition of 100 ships and 7,000 soldiers against La Eochelle and the isle of R6; and notwithstanding its failure, and the expressed opinion of the house of commons "that Buckingham was the cause of all the national calamities," he was named by Charles commander-in-chief of the new expedition to be sent for the re- lief of the Protestants at La Rochelle. While preparing to sail from Portsmouth, Bucking- ham was assassinated by John Felton, a lien- tenant in the army, who had suffered dis- appointment in his expectations of promotion. II. George Villiers, second duke, son of the pre- ceding, born in London, Jan. 30, 1627, died at Kirkby Moorside, in Yorkshire, April 17, 1688. He was educated at Cambridge under the royal patronage, and on leaving the university travelled on the continent with his brother Francis. The breaking out of the civil war recalled him to England, where he joined the king's forces under the earl of Holland, serv- ing with that leader until he was defeated by Fairfax. His brother was killed, and Buck- ingham with difficulty reached the fleet of the prince of Wales, and escaped to France. Since he failed to return, in obedience to the summons of parliament, his estates were con- fiscated, and he was obliged to support him- self in Antwerp, where he had established his temporary residence, by the sale of pictures belonging to his family. In 1651 he seized the opportunity offered by the temporary success of Charles II. in Scotland to recnterthe army ; but after the battle of Worcester, in which he fought under the king, he again took refuge on the continent. In the mean time a part of his estates had been given by the parliament to Fairfax, who allowed the duchess, Bucking- ham's mother, an ample revenue from her former possessions, and treated her with the greatest kindness. Buckingham again re- turned to England in spite of the threats of Cromwell, and was well received by Fairfax, whose only daughter he married in 1657. This marriage excited the displeasure of Cromwell, and the duke was committed to the tower, and afterward transferred to Windsor, where his confinement was less rigorous. He regained his liberty after the abdication of Richard Cromwell, and his estates at the restoration. Charles II. made him a member of the privy council, and lord lieutenant of Yorkshire. His influence over Charles, largely gained through his skill in pandering to the royal pleasures and through his own wit and buffoonery, greatly aided the overthrow of Clarendon, and was the principal incentive to many of the acts which at that time excited universal indigna- tion against the king. For a time he fell into disfavor through some fickle acts which ex- cited the distrust of Charles, and he was de- prived of his offices ; but the king was easily persuaded to restore them, and he regained his old position. When the " cabal " minis- try was formed in 1670, Buckingham was one of its five members. He was soon after- ward sent on an embassy to France to advance the plans of alliance which Charles then had in hand. Other important duties were in- trusted to him ; he was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and remained in the full possession of official power and the king's favor until the overthrow of the cabal by the efforts of the commons, in 1674. Dur- ing the summer of that year he was dismissed and at once joined the opposition party under Shaftesbury, in whose intrigues he was from this time an able ally. In the " popish plot," as it was called, and in the opposition agita- tions of the year following, he was deeply in- volved, and the remainder of his active life was occupied with factious schemes and efforts against his former friends. On the death of Charles he withdrew almost completely from political life, and devoted his time to hunting and similar amusements at his estate, Helmes- ley, in Yorkshire. He died in the house of a