Abstract
Buckingham’s career was frequently compared by contemporaries to the progress of a comet across the sky. Their comparison was justified. In the period between 1614 and 1628, he travelled from obscurity to become the most powerful, and the most hated, man of his time. He amassed a considerable fortune which was spent in especially conspicuous consumption. He dominated and ultimately controlled the patronage network at the Courts of James I and Charles I. He was, in effect, the chief minister of both kings, although there were important differences between the extent of his control of decisionmaking under James and under Charles.
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Bibliography
The essential starting-point for work on Buckingham is R. Lockyer, Buckingham: The Life and Political Career of George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham, 1592–1628 (1981). My essay relies very heavily on this work. The political background of Buckingham’s career can be followed in C. Russell, Parliaments and English Politics, 1621–1629 (Oxford, 1979); and Faction and Parliament: Essays on Early Stuart History, ed. K. Sharpe (Oxford, 1978), in which the essays by Sharpe, Hirst and Adams are particularly useful. D. Hirst, The Representative of the People? Voters and Voting under the Early Stuarts (Cambridge, 1975), explains why MPs were becoming more accountable to their constituents. Biographies of other leading figures at Court also provide useful information on Buckingham. One of the best is M. Prestwich, Cranfield: Politics and Profit under the Early Stuarts (Oxford, 1966). Of older works, S. R. Gardiner, History of England from the Accession of James I to the Outbreak of the Civil War, 1603–1642 (10 vols, 1883–4) is still, despite its age, very readable and exceptionally accurate. Buckingham’s career can be followed in vols II to VI, and vol. X contains a very detailed and helpful index. G. Parry, The Golden Age Restor’d: The Culture of the Stuart Court, 1603–1642 (Manchester, 1981), provides an introduction to the cultural history of the time, and contains a chapter on Buckingham. Asjudgements about Buckingham depend very much on one’s views of the political developments of the Jacobean and early Caroline periods, the following articles are useful for the arguments they pursue. D. Hirst, ‘Parliament, Law and War in the 1620s’, Historical Journal, XXIII (1980) 455–61, and ‘Revisionism Revised: The Place of Principle’, Past and Present, XCVI (1981) 79-99, have important criticisms of some features of the ‘revisionist’ approach to early Stuart history.
J. A. Guy, ‘The Origins of the Petition of Right Reconsidered’, Historical Journal, XXV (1982) 289–312, illuminates the duplicity of the Crown in the aftermath of the forced loan.
J. Wormald, ‘James VI and I: Two Kings or One?’, History, LXVIII (1983) 187–209, offers a suggestive reinterpretation of James I’s kingship.
Finally, K. Sharpe, ‘Faction at the Early Stuart Court’, History Today, XXXIII (Oct 1983) 39–46, places Buckingham in context in developments in faction at the Jacobean and Caroline Courts.
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© 1985 Donald Wilkinson
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Wilkinson, D. (1985). George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. In: Eustace, T. (eds) Statesmen and Politicians of the Stuart Age. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17874-2_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17874-2_3
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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