Buckingham House

GREAT VILLIERS
IN THIS HOUSE
GEORGE VILLIERS
SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
DIED 16th APRIL, 1687
"FORTUNE FILLED HIM TOO FULL AND HE RUN OVER"



"Methinks I see the wanton hours flee, And as they pass, turn back and laugh at me."

George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

(b. Jan. 30, 1628, London - d. April 16, 1687, Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire)

English politician, diplomat, poet, playwright, amateur chemist, gambler, satanist, adulterer and a murderer, 'one of the richest and most powerful nobles of the time', a leading member of King Charles II's inner circle of ministers. Although he was brilliant and colourful, Buckingham's pleasure seeking, capricious personality prevented him from exercising a decisive influence in Charles's government.

His father, the 1st duke of Buckingham, was the closest adviser and friend of King Charles I. George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, was born in 1628, the same year as the assassination of his father, inheriting Helmsley and the surrounding estates. Left in the care of Charles I's royal family, Villiers became a constant companion of the King's son, Prince Charles.

He was educated at Cambridge University and vocalized strong royalist support during the English Civil War. When the war culminated in the defeat and execution of Charles I and the establishment of a republican commonwealth, Villiers fled to the continent to join the escaped Charles Il. His estates,
including Helmsley, were seized by the Commonwealth, and Helmsley was handed to the parliamentarian commander-in-chief, Sir Thomas Fairfax, in 1651.

Charles II became king of Scotland after the death of his father and Villiers followed him there. In 1650 they rode with the Scottish army to the Battle of Worcester where they were routed. Buckingham legged it back to the Netherlands, returning 7 years later after falling out with Charles and after he thought the dust had settled.

In 1657 Villiers married Mary, the daughter of Sir Thomas Fairfax, and thus reaquired Helmsley and other estates.

After the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, he became a privy councillor. Villiers regained the favor of Charles Il and became one of the most powerful courtiers of the region because of his membership in the CABAL, the king's inner circle of advisors. The name of this inner circle was produced from the first initial of all five members' last names: Clifford of Chudleigh, Lord Shaftesbury Ashley, George Villiers Buckingham, Henry Bennet Arlington, and John Maitland Lauderdale. Soon he was leading the opposition to Charles's lord chancellor Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon.

Buckingham's brawling behaviour and intrigues resulted in his brief imprisonment in 1667; he was released in time to help bring about Clarendon's downfall.

Villiers took a mistress, Anna Brudenell, the Countess of Shrewsbury whose husband he later 'ran through' in a duel near Putney. Whilst Buckingham dispatched her husband she stood by holding Buckingham's horse. After the duel Pepys wrote:

'This will make the world think that the king hath good councillors about him, when the Duke of Buckingham, the greatest man about him, is a fellow of no more sobriety than to fight about a whore.'

At this time, Buckingham at first had great influence with the King, but he lost out in a power struggle with the secretary of state Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington. Although Buckingham supported the alliance with France, Charles and Arlington never told him of their intention to use French troops to restore Catholicism to England. Nevertheless, however, his reputation began to turn sour as he was attacked with accusations by the House of Commons for misusing public funds and conducting secret negotiations with France. He was also attacked by the House of Lords for his open affair with the Countess of Shrewsbury. Therefore, in 1674 Villiers was dismissed from office. For a while he sided with the opposition leader, Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury.

After his unfortunate dismissal, Villiers joined the enemies of the Duke of York, the later James II, and vigorously joined in the outcry against the Roman Catholics over Titus Oates' Popish Plot in 1678. He did not vote for the Duke of York's exclusion for succession to the throne, though, and was restored to favor by James II and then retired from politics.

In 1681 he withdrew to his Yorkshire estates.

George Villiers was vain anti-ambitious and known for his temper, recklessness, and lack of principle, which matches the description of his father, though the two never knew each other. He had refined tastes and enjoyed writing poetry, religious tracts, and plays. 

The Duke of Buckingham, who built the finest towers of cards imaginable, had an agreeable voice and was a renowned mimic,  turning into ridicule whatever was ridiculous in other people, and in taking them off, even in their presence, without their perceiving it: In short, he knew how to act all parts, with so much grace and pleasantry, that it was difficult to do without him, when he had a mind to make himself agreeable.

Villiers treated both science and literature in a supercilious manner and openly shared his opinions on those topics in his satirical play The Rehearsal, first performed in 1671. In this play he also parodies the style and attacks the popularity of the heroic drama, patronizes John Dryden, and altogether mocks both playwrights and the art of playwriting.

Buckingham died in his brother-in-law's house at Kirkbymoorside in 1687. After flogging his horse to exhaustion he fell off, dropped asleep in the wet grass and caught a fever. He died without an heir although he may have had a son with the Countess of Shrewsbury, though how that is known is hard to tell because she was well known for 'putting it about'.

His career is recounted in H W Chapman's biography Great Villiers(1949).

Taken from Encyclopædia Britannica

Notes.

1. His father, 1st Duke of Buckingham, murdered in Portsmouth. A major event in Dumas' The Three Musketeers.

2. CABAL, a convenient acronym for Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale.

3. Nell Gwynn was introduced to Charles by Buckingham.

4. A fall from his horse whilst hunting near Kirkbymoorside is the most commonly held belief of how he died, perhaps rupturing his spleen. Some say he just became ill from all his excesses.

5. He died in the bedroom above the wall plaque of Buckingham House. (One of his properties, estimated as being built in 1600).

6. Buried in the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster Abbey, near Charles II.

Buckingham House

Buckingham House is reputed to be the house in which George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, died in 1687. Though much altered and lacking any original dating features, its plan and shape are quite consistent with a date in the 17th century. It is stone built and has a hall, with chamber over, occupying the central part between two slightly projecting cross-wings. 

The property is now divided; the door to the north-part leads through a passage to an 18th-century staircase at the rear, a very similar arrangement to that found at High Hall. On the south side of the hall there is a fireplace against a substantial wall, leaving a space of about 1.5 metres beyond it before the cross-wing is reached. This part of the house has been gutted for a shop but the original existence of a cross passage in this position may reasonably be inferred, providing a direct comparison with the wide passage at Rectory House.

Acknowledgements:

http://ellisctaylor.homestead.com/pokinroundcliveden.html

Bevis, Richard W. English Drama: Restoration and Eighteenth Century:1660-1789. Longman Publishing; London, England, 1988.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition. "Buckingham, George Villiers,Second Duke of" Columbia University: New York, 2001.

Nettleton, George H. and Arthur E. Case. British Dramatists from Dryden to Sheridan. Southern Illinois University Press; Carbondale and EdwardsVille, 1969.