Duke of Buckingham
The Duke of Buckingham was the last man to govern England as a king's favourite, rose from a knight's younger son to the only duke in the kingdom on James I's affection, kept the affection of James's son as well, lost two expeditions and the confidence of two parliaments, and was stabbed in a Portsmouth inn by a lieutenant who had read the Commons' remonstrance against him. He was born George Villiers in 1592 in Leicestershire, was noticed by the king at a hunt in 1614 for his looks and his dancing, and was cupbearer, gentleman of the bedchamber, earl, marquis and, in 1623, duke. James called him Steenie for his resemblance to a painting of St Stephen and wrote to him as his sweet child and wife. Every office and every marriage in the court passed through his hands and his mother's. In 1623 he took Prince Charles incognito to Madrid to fetch the Spanish infanta, came home without her and with a grudge, and turned the country to war with Spain. The expedition to Cadiz in 1625, which he organised as Lord High Admiral, drank the wine cellars and came back. Charles succeeded that year and kept him. The parliament of 1626 tried to impeach him and was dissolved to save him. In 1627 he took a fleet to the Île de Ré to relieve the Huguenots of La Rochelle, besieged the citadel for three months, and lost half his men in the retreat across the salt-marsh causeways, which made the king's need for money into the Petition of Right of 1628. He was at Portsmouth in August 1628 preparing a second relief when a lieutenant named Felton, passed over for promotion who had taken the Commons' words for a licence, stabbed him once in the chest in the Greyhound inn on the 23rd. The crowds drank Felton's health. Charles wept and never trusted a parliament again, which is part of how the civil war came. The duke lies in Westminster Abbey in the chapel of the kings.
- Lived: 1592 CE – 1628 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: courtier, admiral, minister
