Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 2.djvu/68

BUCKINGHAM. 67 Marquessate, II. Earldom, XI. 1G28, }■ to ' 1G87. Dukedom, V.~) 2. Geoeoe (Villiers), Duke op Buckingham, &c, 2«1 but 1st sun', s. and h., b. 30 Jany. 1627/8, and bap. 1 1 Feb. iit Walliugford House, Westin. ; reg. at St. Martin 's-in-the-ficlds. M.A. Cambridge, 1642. He was nom. K. G. lfl Su]). 1649, at St. Germain-cn-Laye, tho' not inst. till 15 Apr. 1661. Gent, of the Bedchamber, 1650- 57 and 1661-07 : P.O. 1650 ; Col. of a Reg. of Horse, with which he fought in the battle of Worcester, 3 Sep. 1651, whence he escaped with difficulty to Holland ; Bearer of the Orb at the Coronation, 23 April 1661. On o Feb. 1C67 his right to tlie BARONY OF KOOS, jure matris, was admitted. Lord Lieut, of the Wert Riding of co. York, 1611-74. Master of the Horse, 1668-74 ; High Steward of Oxfovtl,1669; Ambassador to Paris, 1670, 1671, and Joint Ambassador, 1672 ; Chancellor of the Univ. of Cambridge, 1671-74; Keeper of Enfield Chace, 1672-75; Lieut. Geu. of the Forces and Col. of a Reg. of Foot, 1673 ; one of the Lords of Admiralty, 1673 till dismissed in 1671. In 1670 he was one of the five Ministers for Foreign Affairs who formed the unpopular " CaM."(') His talents were perhaps more various than great. He was " Chemist, Fiddler, Statesman, and Buffoon,"! 1 ') besides, being also, an author. But the man who "could equally charm the Presbyterian Fairfax aud the Dissolute Charles "( c ) was, indeed, no ordinary person, tho' his career is chiefly known by wild extravagance and (probably unique) profligacy. His seduction of the Countess of Shrewsbury, whose husband he killed in a duel 16 March 1667 was a fair specimen thereof. He m. 15 Sep. 1657 at Bolton Percy, co. York, Mary, da. and h. of Thomas (FAIRFAX), 3d Baiiox Faihkax OF CamEBON [S.], the celebrated Parliamentary General (to whom his forfeited estates had been granted) by Anne, da. and coheir of Horatio (Vebej. Loud Verb ov Tilbiuy. He d. s.p. legit, of a chill caught after hunting, 16 April 16S7, at the bouse of one of his tenants at Kirkby Moorside, co. York.( J ) and was bur. next day in the church there, whence he was removed, 7 June following to Westm. Abbey, when the Barony of Roos, inherited from his mother, fell into abeyance, and the Peerages conferred on his Father (excepting, perhaps, as to the reversion of the Earldom, Yiseountcy and Barony under the patent of 14 March 1616/7) became e.ctinct. ( u ) Admon. as " late of Helmsley, co. York," 2 May 1687, and 5 March 1719/20. His widow, who was b. 30 July and bap. 1 Aug. 1638 at St. Mary's, Bishophill, York, 20 Oct. 1704 in her 67th year, and was b ur. 30th at Westm. Abbey. Admon. 7 Nov. 1704. (") See vol. i, p. 131, note " c " sub " Arlington." ( u ) Dry den. (°) Horace Walpole's " Noble Authors." ( u ) He was utterly ruined in reputation, and probably, very considerably, in means tho' not to the extent attributed iu the effective lines 00 his death-bed in Pope's " Moral Essays." " In the worst Inn's worst room, with mat half hung, The floor of plaster, and the walls of dung, On once a flock bed but repaired with straw, With tape-tied curtains never meant to draw, The George and Garter dangling from that bed, Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red, Great Villiers lies." — (°) " The beautiful Francis Villiers," his only br. (a posthumous child) was bap. 21 April 1629 at St. Martin's-in-the-fields, and rf. tinm. 7 July 1648 (being slain in a skirmish near Kingston, Surrey), and was bur. at Westm. Abbey. See " Loyalists' Bloody Roll," vol. i, p. 294, note "c,"