Earls And Dukes Of Buckingham. The title of earl of Buckingham seems at first to have been borne by the younger sons of the Plan-tagenet kings; as was the case with the youngest son of Edward III., who was created duke of Gloucester by his nephew, Richard II., and subsequently murdered by his orders in the castle of Calais. Gloucester's son having died without issue, his heir, Humphrey, earl of Stafford, was created duke of Buckingham. He was succeeded by Henry Stafford, "the deep revolving, wily Buckingham " of Shakespeare, and grandson of the duke of Gloucester above mentioned. Having assisted Richard III. to gain the throne, he afterward conspired with the Lancastrians, was betrayed to Richard, and put to death in 1483. His son, Edward Stafford, was restored to his honors and estates by Henry VII. in 1486; but having fallen under the suspicions of Henry VIII., he was beheaded in 1521. With him ended the ducal title in the house of Stafford. The title of earl of Buckingham was revived in 1617, and conferred upon GeorgeVilliers. I. George VilIiers, duke of Buckingham, an English statesman, born Aug. 20, 1592, died Aug. 23, 1628. He was a younger son of Sir Edward Villiers, of Brookes-by in Leicestershire. His fine person, ready wit, and polished manners gained the favor of James I., who attached him to his court as cupbearer.

He became a knight and gentleman 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 following 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, master 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 direction of the courts of law, departments of government, etc. In 1620 he married the daughter of the earl of Rutland. Three years afterward 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, Buckingham 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 Rochelle and the isle of Re; 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 relief of the Protestants at La Rochelle. While preparing to sail from Portsmouth, Buckingham was assassinated by John Felton, a lieutenant in the army, who had suffered disappointment in his expectations of promotion.

II. George Villiers, second duke, son of the preceding, born in London, Jan. 30, 1627, died at Kirkby Moorside, in Yorkshire, April 17, 1688. He was educated at Cambridge under the royal patrdnage, 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, serving with that leader until he was defeated by Fairfax. His brother was killed, and Buckingham 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 confiscated, and he was obliged to support himself 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 reenter the 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, Buckingham's mother, an ample revenue from her former possessions, and treated her with the greatest kindness.

Buckingham again returned 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 indignation against the king. For a time he fell into disfavor through some fickle acts which excited the distrust of Charles, and he was deprived of his offices; but the king was easily persuaded to restore them, and he regained his old position. When the "cabal" ministry was formed in 1670, Buckingham was one of its five members. He was soon afterward sent on an embassy to France to advance the plans of alliance which Charles then had in hand.

Other important duties were intrusted 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. During 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 agitations of the year following, he was deeply involved, 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 tenant from a fever brought on by a sudden cold after a fox chase. Buckingham's private life was of the most profligate character, and in reckless indulgence he surpassed even the most abandoned of Charles's court. It was by him that Louise de Querouaille, afterward duchess of Portsmouth, was brought to the king as his mistress; and he also introduced Nell Gwynn and the actress Davies to the royal favor.

His own intrigues were numberless and of the vilest character. He lived in open adultery with the countess of Shrewsbury, and killed the earl her husband in a duel; the countess is said to have stood by in the disguise of a page, a witness of the murder. Buckingham had brilliant wit, but he was quite as famous for his fondness for low buffoonery and mimicry. Many anecdotes of his adventures show the lasting enmities he made by this propensity. His resentment was always deep and lasting, and he was utterly unscrupulous in seeking revenge. There is little doubt that he was concerned in a plot for the murder of the duke of Ormond, who had contributed to his temporary degradation in 1666. Buckingham wasted an enormous fortune in the most reckless extravagance, and died in comparative poverty, though by no means in such destitution as Pope, in his desire to point a moral, has represented in the well known lines on the subject in his "Moral Essays." He died without issue, and was the last of his branch of the Villiers family.

Several dramas and other literary works left by him, including poems, speeches, and a " Satire against Mankind," were collected in a volume in 1704. He is said to have introduced the manufacture of glass into England from Venice, but this is doubtful.