George Villiers (1st Duke of Buckingham)

Sjoerd Spoelstra on 17 Nov 2003   Link to this

The kings' mistress Barbara Villiers/Palmer/Lady Castlemaine was a cousin of the first Duke.

See http://www.stirnet.com/HTML/genie/british/uv/vi...

and

http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/1062/

vincent on 23 Nov 2003   Link to this

The Bio of G villiers
"...In 1627 Villiers then led another failure to try and aid the Huguenots besieged at La Rochelle, losing over 4000 men out of a force of 7000. While organising a second attempt he was killed at Portsmouth by John Felton, a naval officer who held a personal grudge against him. Felton was hanged in November..."
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Villiers,_...
george 2: the one in the diary
http://www.abcgallery.com/V/vandyck/vandyck31.html
* You may be surprised to learn that Buckingham Palace was not built for the British monarchy at all. It was built for John, the first duke of Buckingham in 1703. He was married to the illegitimate daughter of King James II. She was nicknamed Princess Buckingham, because of her delusions of grandeur.
Lord Buckingham's illegitimate son, Sir Charles Sheffield, sold the house to the crown for

dirk on 3 May 2004   Link to this

Buckingham's murder

Annotation 2 May 1661:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1661/05/02/#c14040

JonTom Kittredge on 15 Dec 2006   Link to this

"Buckingham Palace was ... built for John, the first duke of Buckingham in 1703."
This is a different Buckingham -- different family and different creation of the title. The quotation refers to John Sheffield, created 1st Duke of Buckingham in 1703 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sheffield%2C_...