Chapter 65

On the king's return Buckingham, who met him at his landing at Dover, was at first received coldly; but he was soon again in favour, was appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber, carried the orb at the coronation on the 23rd of April 1661, and was made lord-lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire on the 21st of September. The same year he accompanied the princess Henrietta to Paris on her marriage with the duke of Orleans, but made love to her himself with such imprudence that he was recalled. On the 28th of April 1662 he was admitted to the privy council. His confiscated estates amounting to £26,000 a year were restored to him, and he was reputed the king's richest subject. He took part in the suppression of the projected insurrection in Yorkshire in 1663, went to sea in the first Dutch war in 1665, and was employed in taking measures to resist the Dutch or French invasion in June 1666.

He was, however, debarred from high office by Clarendon's influence. Accordingly Buckingham's intrigues were now directed to effect the chancellor's ruin. He organized parties in both houses of parliament in support of the bill of 1666 prohibiting the import of Irish cattle, partly to oppose Clarendon and partly to thwart the duke of Ormonde. Having asserted during the debates that "whoever was against the bill had either an Irish interest or an Irish understanding," he was challenged by Lord Ossory. Buckingham avoided the encounter, and Ossory was sent to the Tower. A short time afterwards, during a conference between the two houses on the 19th of December, he came to blows with the marquess of Dorchester, pulling off the latter's periwig, while Dorchester at the close of the scuffle "had much of the duke's hair in his hand."[2] According to Clarendon no misdemeanour so flagrant had ever before offended the dignity of the House of Lords. The offending peers were both sent to the Tower, but were released after apologizing; and Buckingham vented his spite by raising a claim to the title of Lord Roos held by Dorchester's son-in-law. His opposition to the government had forfeited the king's favour, and he was now accused of treasonable intrigues, and of having cast the king's horoscope. His arrest was ordered on the 25th of February 1667, and he was dismissed from all his offices. He avoided capture till the 27th of June, when he gave himself up and was imprisoned in the Tower. He was released, however, by July 17th, was restored to favour and to his appointments on the 15 of September, and took an active part in the prosecution of Clarendon. On the latter's fall he became the chief minister, though holding no high office except that of master of the horse, bought from the duke of Albermarle in 1668. In 1671 he was elected chancellor of Cambridge, and in 1672 high steward of Oxford university. He favoured religious toleration, and earned the praise of Richard Baxter; he supported a scheme of comprehension in 1668, and advised the declaration of indulgence in 1672. He upheld the original jurisdiction of the Lords in Skinner's case. With these exceptions Buckingham's tenure of office was chiefly marked by scandals and intrigues. His illicit connexion with the countess of Shrewsbury led to a duel with her husband at Barn Elms on the 16th of January 1668, in which Shrewsbury was fatally wounded. The tale that the countess, disguised as a page, witnessed the encounter, appears to have no foundation; but Buckingham, by installing the "widow of his own creation" in his own and his wife's house, outraged even the lax opinion of that day. He was thought to have originated the project of obtaining the divorce of the childless queen. He intrigued against James, against Sir William Coventry--one of the ablest statesmen of the time, whose fall he procured by provoking him to send him a challenge--and against the great duke of Ormonde, who was dismissed in 1669. He was even suspected of having instigated Thomas Blood's attempt to kidnap and murder Ormonde, and was charged with the crime in the king's presence by Ormonde's son, Lord Ossory, who threatened to shoot him dead in the event of his father's meeting with a violent end. Arlington, next to Buckingham himself the most powerful member of the cabal and a favourite of the king, was a rival less easy to overcome; and he derived considerable influence from the control of foreign affairs entrusted to him. Buckingham had from the first been an adherent of the French alliance, while Arlington concluded through Sir William Temple in 1668 the Triple Alliance. But on the complete _volte-face_ and surrender made by Charles to France in 1670, Arlington as a Roman Catholic was entrusted with the first treaty of Dover of the 20th of May--which besides providing for the united attack on Holland, included Charles's undertaking to proclaim himself a Romanist and to reintroduce the Roman Catholic faith into England,--While Buckingham was sent to France to carry on the sham negotiations which led to the public treaties of the 31st of December 1670 and the 2nd of February 1672. He was much pleased with his reception by Louis XIV., declared that he had "more honours done him than ever were given to any subject," and was presented with a pension of 10,000 livres a year for Lady Shrewsbury. In June 1672 he accompanied Arlington to the Hague to impose terms on the prince of Orange, and with Arlington arranged the new treaty with Louis. After all this activity he suffered a keen disappointment in being passed over for the command of the English forces in favour of Schomberg. He now knew of the secret treaty of Dover, and towards the end of 1673 his jealousy of Arlington became open hostility. He threatened to impeach him, and endeavoured with the help of Louis to stir up a faction against him in parliament. This, however, was unsuccessful, and in January 1674 an attack was made upon Buckingham himself simultaneously in both houses. In the Lords the trustees of the young earl of Shrewsbury complained that Buckingham continued publicly his intimacy with the countess, and that a son of theirs had been buried in Westminster Abbey with the title of earl of Coventry; and Buckingham, after presenting an apology, was required, as was the countess, to give security for £10,000 not to cohabit together again. In the Commons he was attacked as the promoter of the French alliance, of "popery" and arbitrary government. He defended himself chiefly by endeavouring to throw the blame upon Arlington; but an address was voted petitioning the king to remove him from his councils, presence and from employment for ever. Charles, who had only been waiting for a favourable opportunity, and who was enraged at Buckingham's disclosures, consented with alacrity. Buckingham retired into private life, reformed his ways, attended church with his wife, began to pay his debts, became a "patriot," and was claimed by the country or opposition party as one of their leaders. In the spring of 1675 he was conspicuous for his opposition to the Test oath and for his abuse of the bishops, and on the 16th of November he introduced a bill for the relief of the nonconformists. On the 15th of February 1677 he was one of the four lords who endeavoured to embarrass the government by raising the question whether the parliament, not having assembled according to the act of Edward III. once in the year, had not been dissolved by [v.04 p.0671] the recent prorogation. The motion was rejected and the four lords were ordered to apologize. On their refusing, they were sent to the Tower, Buckingham in particular exasperating the House by ridiculing its censure. He was released in July, and immediately entered into intrigues with Barillon, the French ambassador, with the object of hindering the grant of supplies to the king; and in 1678 he visited Paris to get the assistance of Louis XIV. for the cause of the opposition. He took an active part in the prosecution of those implicated in the supposed Popish Plot, and accused the lord chief justice (Sir William Scroggs) in his own court while on circuit of favouring the Roman Catholics. In consequence of his conduct a writ was issued for his apprehension, but it was never served. He promoted the return of Whig candidates to parliament, constituted himself the champion of the dissenters, and was admitted a freeman of the city of London. He, however, separated himself from the Whigs on the exclusion question, probably on account of his dislike of Monmouth and Shaftesbury, was absent from the great debate in the Lords on the 15th of November 1680, and was restored to the king's favour in 1684.

He took no part in public life after James's accession, but returned to his manor of Helmsley in Yorkshire, the cause of his withdrawal being probably exhausted health and exhausted finances. In 1685 he published a pamphlet, entitled _A short Discourse on the Reasonableness of Man's having a Religion_ (reprinted in _Somers Tracts_ (1813, ix. 13), in which after discussing the main subject he returned to his favourite topic, religious toleration. The tract provoked some rejoinders and was defended, amongst others, by William Penn, and by the author himself in _The Duke of Buckingham's Letter to the unknown author of a short answer to the Duke of Buckingham's Paper_ (1685). In hopes of converting him to Roman Catholicism James sent him a priest, but Buckingham turned his arguments into ridicule. He died on the 16th of April 1687, from a chill caught while hunting, in the house of a tenant at Kirkby Moorside in Yorkshire, expressing great repentance and feeling himself "despised by my country and I fear forsaken by my God."[3] The miserable picture of his end drawn by Pope, however, is greatly exaggerated. He was buried on the 7th of June 1687 in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey, in greater state, it was said, than the late king, and with greater splendour. With his death the family founded by the extraordinary rise to power and influence of the first duke ended. As he left no legitimate children the title became extinct, and his great estate had been completely dissipated; of the enormous mansion constructed by him at Cliveden in Buckinghamshire not a stone remains.

The ostentatious licence and the unscrupulous conduct of the Alcibiades of the 17th century have been deservedly censured. But even his critics agree that he was good-humoured, good-natured, generous, an unsurpassed mimic and the leader of fashion; and with his good looks, in spite of his moral faults and even crimes, he was irresistible to his contemporaries. Many examples of his amusing wit have survived. His portrait has been drawn by Burnet, Count Hamilton in the _Mémoires de Grammont_, Dryden, Pope in the _Epistle to Lord Bathurst_, and Sir Walter Scott in _Peveril of the Peak_. He is described by Reresby as "the first gentleman of person and wit I think I ever saw," and Burnet bears the same testimony. Dean Lockier, after alluding to his unrivalled skill in riding, dancing and fencing, adds, "When he came into the presence-chamber it was impossible for you not to follow him with your eye as he went along, he moved so gracefully." Racing and hunting were his favourite sports, and his name long survived in the hunting songs of Yorkshire. He was the patron of Cowley, Sprat, Matthew Clifford and Wycherley. He dabbled in chemistry, and for some years, according to Burnet, "he thought he was very near the finding of the philosopher's stone." He set up glass works at Lambeth the productions of which were praised by Evelyn; and he spent much money, according to his biographer Brian Fairfax, in building _insanae substructions_. Dryden described him under the character of Zimri in the celebrated lines in _Absalom and Achitophel_ (to which Buckingham replied in _Poetical Reflections on a late Poem ... by a Person of Honour, 1682_):--

"A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome; Stiff in opinions, always in the wrong, Was everything by starts and nothing long; But in the course of one revolving moon, Was chymist, fiddler, statesman and buffoon.... Beggar'd by fools, whom still he found too late, He had his jest, but they had his estate."

Buckingham, however, cannot with any truth be called the "epitome of mankind." On the contrary, the distinguishing features of his life are its incompleteness, aimlessness, imperfection, insignificance, neglect of talents and waste of opportunities. "He saw and approved the best," says Brian Fairfax, "but did too often _deteriora sequi_." He is more severely but more justly judged by himself. In gay moments indeed he had written--

"Methinks, I see the wanton houres flee, And as they passe, turne back and laugh at me,"[4]--

but his last recorded words on the approach of death, "O! what a prodigal have I been of that most valuable of all possessions--Time!" express with exact truth the fundamental flaw of his character and career, of which he had at last become conscious.

Buckingham wrote occasional verses and satires showing undoubted but undeveloped poetical gifts, a collection of which, containing however many pieces not from his pen, was first published by Tom Brown in 1704; while a few extracts from a commonplace book of Buckingham of some interest are given in an article in the _Quarterly Review_ of January 1898. He was the author of _The Rehearsal_, an amusing and clever satire on the heroic drama and especially on Dryden (first performed on the 7th of December 1671, at the Theatre Royal, and first published in 1672), a deservedly popular play which was imitated by Fielding in _Tom Thumb the Great_, and by Sheridan in the _Critic_. Buckingham also published two adapted plays, _The Chances_, altered from Fletcher's play of the same name (1682) and _The Restoration or Right will take place_, from Beaumont and Fletcher's _Philaster_ (publ. 1714); and also _The Battle of Sedgmoor_ and _The Militant Couple_ (publ. 1704). The latest edition of his works is that by T. Evans (2 vols. 8vo, 1775). Another work is named by Wood _A Demonstration of the Deity_, of which there is now no trace.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The life of Buckingham has been well and accurately traced and the chief authorities collected in the article in the _Dict, of Nat. Biography_ (1899) by C.H. Firth, and in _George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham_, by Lady Burghclere (1903). Other biographies are in Wood's _Athenae Oxon_ (Bliss), iv. 207; in _Biographia Britannica_; by Brian Fairfax, printed in H. Walpole's _Catalogue of Pictures of George Duke of Buckingham_ (1758); in Arber's edition of the _Rehearsal_ (1868); and by the author of _Hudibras_ in _The Genuine Remains of Mr Samuel Butler_, by R. Thyer (1759), ii. 72. The following may also be mentioned:--_Quarterly Review, Jan. 1898_ (commonplace book); _A Conference on the Doctrine of Transubstantiation between ... the Duke of Buckingham and Father FitzGerald_ (1714); _A Narrative of the Cause and Manner of the Imprisonment of the Lords_ (1677); _The Declaration of the ... Duke of Buckingham and the Earls of Holland and Peterborough ... associated for the King_ (1648); S.R. Gardiner's _Hist. of the Commonwealth_ (1894-1901); _Hist. of Eng. Poetry_, by W.J. Courthope (1903), iii. 460; Horace Walpole's _Royal and Noble Authors_, iii. 304; _Miscellania Aulica_, by T. Brown (1702); and the _Fairfax Correspondence_ (1848-1849). For the correspondence see _Charles II. and Scotland in 1650_ (Scottish History Soc., vol. xvii., 1894); _Calendars of St. Pap. Dom.; Hist. MSS. Comm. Series, MSS. of Duke of Buccleuch at Montagu House, of Mrs Frankland-Russell-Astley_, of _Marq. of Ormonde_, and _Various Collections_; and _English Hist. Rev._ (April 1905), xx. 373.

(P. C. Y.)

[1] i.e. in the Villiers line; see above.

[2] Clarendon, _Life and Continuation_, 979.

[3] _Quarterly Review_, January 1898, p. 110.

[4] From his Common place Book (_Quarterly Rev._ vol. 187, p. 87).

BUCKINGHAM, HENRY STAFFORD, 2ND DUKE OF[1] (1454-1483), was the son of Humphrey Stafford, killed at the first battle of St Albans in 1455, and grandson of Humphrey the 1st duke (cr. 1444), killed at Northampton in 1460, both fighting for Lancaster. The 1st duke, who bore the title of earl of Buckingham in right of his mother, was the son of Edmund, 5th earl of Stafford, and of Anne, daughter of Thomas, duke [v.04 p.0672] of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III.; Henry's mother was Margaret, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt. Thus he came on both sides of the blood royal, and this, coupled with the vastness of his inheritance, made the young duke's future of importance to Edward IV. He was recognized as duke in 1465, and next year was married to Catherine Woodville, the queen's sister. On reaching manhood he was made a knight of the Garter in 1474, and in 1478 was high steward at the trial of George, duke of Clarence. He had not otherwise filled any position of importance, but his fidelity might seem to have been secured by his marriage. However, after Edward's death, Buckingham was one of the first persons worked upon by Richard, duke of Gloucester. It was through his help that Richard obtained possession of the young king, and he was at once rewarded with the offices of justiciar and chamberlain of North and South Wales, and constable of all the royal castles in the principality and Welsh Marches. In the proceedings which led to the deposition of Edward V. he took a prominent part, and on the 24th of June 1483 he urged the citizens at the Guildhall to take Richard as king, in a speech of much eloquence, "for he was neither unlearned and of nature marvellously well spoken." (More). At Richard's coronation he served as chamberlain, and immediately afterwards was made constable of England and confirmed in his powers in Wales. Richard might well have believed that the duke's support was secured. But early in August Buckingham withdrew from the court to Brecon. He may have thought that he deserved an even greater reward, or possibly had dreams of establishing his own claims to the crown. At all events, at Brecon he fell somewhat easily under the influence of his prisoner, John Morton (_q.v._), who induced him to give his support to his cousin Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond. A widespread plot was soon formed, but Richard had early warning, and on the 15th of October, issued a proclamation against Buckingham. Buckingham, as arranged, prepared to enter England with a large force of Welshmen. His advance was stopped by an extraordinary flood on the Severn, his army melted away without striking a blow, and he himself took refuge with a follower, Ralph Bannister, at Lacon Hall, near Wem. The man betrayed him for a large reward, and on the 1st of November, Buckingham was brought to the king at Salisbury. Richard refused to see him, and after a summary trial had him executed next day (2nd of November 1483), though it was a Sunday.

Buckingham's eldest son, Edward (1478-1521), eventually succeeded him as 3rd duke, the attainder being removed in 1485; the second son, Henry, was afterwards earl of Wiltshire. The 3rd duke played an important part as lord high constable at the opening of the reign of Henry VIII., and is introduced into Shakespeare's play of that king, but he fell through his opposition to Wolsey, and in 1521 was condemned for treason and executed (17th of May); the title was then forfeited with his attainder, his only son Henry (1501-1563), who in his father's lifetime was styled earl of Stafford, being, however, given back his estates in 1522, and in 1547 restored in blood by parliament with the title of Baron Stafford, which became extinct in this line with Roger, 5th Baron in 1640. In that year the barony of Stafford was granted to William Howard (1614-1680), who after two months was created Viscount Stafford; he was beheaded in 1680, and his son was created earl of Stafford in 1688, a title which became extinct in 1762; but in 1825 the descent to the barony of 1640 was established, to the satisfaction of the House of Lords, in the person of Sir G.W. Jerningham, in whose family it then continued.

The chief original authorities for the life of the 2nd duke of Buckingham are the _Continuation of the Croyland Chronicle_; Sir Thomas More's _Richard III._; and Fabyan's _Chronicle_. Amongst modern authorities consult J. Gairdner's _Richard III._; and Sir. J. Ramsay's _Lancaster and York_.

(C. L. K.)

[1] i.e. in the Stafford line; see above.

BUCKINGHAM, JAMES SILK (1786-1855), English author and traveller, was born near Falmouth on the 25th of August 1786, the son of a farmer. His youth was spent at sea. After years of wandering he established in 1818 the _Calcutta Journal_. This venture at first proved highly successful, but in 1823 the paper's outspoken criticisms of the East India Company led to the expulsion of Buckingham from India and to the suppression of the paper by John Adam, the acting governor-general. His case was brought before parliament, and a pension of £200 a year was subsequently awarded him by the East India Company as compensation. Buckingham continued his journalistic ventures on his return to England, and started the _Oriental Herald_ (1824) and the _Athenaeum_ (1828) which was not a success in his hands. In parliament, where he sat as member for Sheffield from 1832-1837, he was a strong advocate of social reform. He was a most voluminous writer. He had travelled much in Europe, America and the East, and wrote a great number of useful books of travel. In 1851 the value of these and of his other literary work was recognized by the grant of a civil list pension of £200 a year. At the time of his death in London, on the 30th of June 1855, Buckingham was at work on his autobiography, two volumes of the intended four being completed and published (1855).

His youngest son, Leicester Silk Buckingham (1825-1867), achieved no little popularity as a playwright, several of his free adaptations of French comedies being produced in London between 1860 and 1867.

BUCKINGHAM, a market town and municipal borough and the county town of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Buckingham parliamentary division, 61 m. N.W. of London by a branch of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3152. It lies in an open valley on the upper part of the river Ouse, which encircles the main portion of the town on three sides. The church of St Peter and St Paul, which was extensively restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, a native of this neighbourhood, is of the 18th century, and stands on the site of the old castle; the town hall dates from the close of the previous century; and the grammar school was founded by Edward VI., in part occupying buildings of earlier date, which retain Perpendicular and Decorated windows, and a Norman door. A chantry, founded in 1268 by Matthew Stratton, archdeacon of Buckingham, previously occupied the site; the Norman work may be a remnant of the chapel of a gild of the Holy Trinity. The manor house is of the early part of the 17th century, and other old houses remain. The adjacent mansion of Stowe, approached from the town by a magnificent avenue of elms, and surrounded by gardens very beautifully laid out, was the seat of the dukes of Buckingham until the extinction of the title in 1889. Buckingham is served by a branch of the Grand Junction Canal, and has agricultural trade, manufactures of condensed milk and artificial manure, maltings and flour-mills; while an old industry survives to a modified extent in the manufacture of pillow-lace. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 5006 acres.