Mary Villiers (Duchess of Buckingham)

9 Annotations

First Reading

jeannine  •  Link

From Grammont's footnotes

"Mary, Duchess of Buckingham, was the only daughter of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, and Anne, the daughter of Horace, Lord Vere; a most virtuous and pious lady, in a vicious age and court. If she had any of the vanities, she had certainly none of the vices of it. The duke and she lived lovingly and decently together; she patiently bearing with those faults in him which she could not remedy. . She survived him many years, and died near St. James's, at Westminster, and was buried in the vault of the family of Villiers, in Henry VII.'s chapel, anno 1705, ætat. 66." -- Brian Fairfax's Life of the Duke of Buckingham, 4to. 1758, p. 39. She was married at Nun Appleton, September 6, 1657. In the Memoirs of the English Court, by Madame Dunois, p. 11, it is said, "The Duchess of Buckingham has merit and virtue; she is brown and lean, but had she been the most beautiful and charming of her sex, the being his wife would have been sufficient alone to have inspired him with a dislike. Notwithstanding she knew he was always intriguing, yet she never spoke of it, and had complaisance enough to entertain his mistresses, and even to lodge them in her house; all which she suffered because she loved him." In some manuscript notes in Oldys's copy of Langbaine, by a gentleman still living, we are told that the old Lady Viscountess de Longueville, grandmother to the Earl of Sussex, who died in 1763, aged near 100, used to tell many little anecdotes of Charles II.'s queen, whom she described as a little ungraceful woman, so short-legged, that when she stood upon her feet, you would have thought she was on her knees, and yet so long waisted, that when she sat down she appeared a well-sized woman. She also described the Duchess of Buckingham, to whom she was related, as much such another in person as the queen; a little round crumpled woman, very fond of finery. She remembered paying her a visit when she (the duchess) was in mourning, at which time she found her lying on a sofa, with a kind of loose robe over her, all edged or laced with gold. This circumstance gives credit to Fairfax's observation above, that if she had any of the vanities, she had certainly none of the vices of the court.
http://www.pseudopodium.org/repre… see note 160

Second Reading

Bill  •  Link

Mary, sole daughter and heiress of Thomas, lord Fairfax, and wife of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, was a woman of little or no beauty, but of great virtue and piety. The duke, who seemed to be all mankind's epitome, well knew how to assume, at least, the character of an affectionate husband; and loved her, very probably in her turn, as she was a complying and contented wife. A man who could equally adapt himself to the presbyterian Fairfax and the irreligious Charles, could, with great ease, become a civil and obliging husband to a woman who was never disposed to check the current of his humour, or correct the eccentricity of his course. She died in 1705, in the 66th year of her age.
---A Biographical History of England. J. Granger, 1775.

Linda  •  Link

The description of Queen Catherine attributed to Mary, Duchess of Buckingham, accords with what Germans call a Sitzriese, or "sitting giant." Goethe is also said to have been a Sitzriese.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Mary Fairfax Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham has her own Wikipedia page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar…

Of Diary times, it says:
"The couple had no children. The duchess was made a Lady of the Bedchamber to Catherine of Braganza, queen of Charles II of England, and held the position from 1663 until 1692.
"In the course of their marriage, Mary tolerated her husband's mistresses and was called "a most virtuous and pious lady, in a vicious age and Court".
"In 1668, after fatally wounding Francis Talbot, 11th Earl of Shrewsbury, in a duel, Buckingham set up house with his widow, Anna, and Mary Villiers was obliged to return to live with her parents until the liaison ended in 1674."

Third Reading

徽柔  •  Link

Poor Mary Fairfax on discovering her husband being unfaithful (again):
"What, hath all my faithfulness & all my tenderness merited no more than that another should reign in your heart? That heart which, belonging to me alone, & the only pleasure of my life, yet never ceases to take fresh engagements. My unhappy fortune today conducted me hither, to make me a witness of your transports for another, & to disgrace me before you. And I love you so dearly, so blindly, that at the very moment you outraged me most, I was so weak as to enter into your interests. Your pain was more grievous to me than mine.... Ah! once again I abandon my own feelings, let me share yours, & console me only with a word, a look—Ah, what am I saying ? ” she cried as she realised his coldness. ‘ Alas! you refuse me everything ! ”
By D’aulnoy in her Memoirs of the court of England (Though I doubt she embellished the conversation)

徽柔  •  Link

To be honest I often imagine what would be like if Mary Fairfax was a man and Buckingham being a woman,and they were still married to each other.Their lives could have been so much better with their gender exchanged. The cool-headed,devoted,kind-hearted Mary Fairfax who grew up in the battlefield serving the country can worked as a successful military officer like her father before her,while Buckingham could go about in all his frivolous ways like every carefree court beauty without causing any harm ,waking up in 11 A.M. as he always did and with no one to blame him.

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

Mary Fairfax's skin, like Catherine of Braganza’s, was swarthy, but she was also short-legged and awkward — a "little round crumpled woman," 2 and yet so fond of finery, that even when in mourning she would contrive to wear a loose over-robe all edged and laced with gold. Pious and virtuous as she was, she shared readily in the harmless frolics of the Queen's circle.
2 Illustration to Bonn's Ed. of Grammont's "Mems.," 405.

GEORGE VILLIERS, SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM -- 1628-1687 : A STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF THE RESTORATION
By Baroness Winifred Anne Henrietta Christine Herbert Gardner, LADY BURGHCLERE
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W. LONDON
1903
https://archive.org/stream/cu3192…

And if you believe Grammont ... but in this case, I score his memory quite high as it fits with others testimonials. I'm happy Queen Catherine found some genuine lady friends.

徽柔  •  Link

Perhaps the most moving proof of Mary Fairfax's devotion to her worthless husband:
Edward Pierce II was commissioned by her to design a monument to Buckingham after Buck's death. It was never erected and both Mary Fairfax and Buckingham were eventually buried alongside the first Buckingham. However, a dead infant was shown in the foreground of the drawing, lying with a coronet on its pillow.
The official note from the British Museum expresses dismay at the dead baby on this headstone, as it is well known that poor Mary Fairfax and Buckingham had no children. It may be that there was an unrecorded stillborn baby. But it suddenly strikes me that it may be the dead infant of Buckingham and Anna Maria Talbot. In the latter conjecture, the Duchess's fondness for her unfaithful late husband even led her to be willing to place the bastard child on their common tombstone. (At this point Anna Maria herself had long left England)Hopefully in death, they can finally united as a family.
The drawing can be found on the website of the British Museum.https://www.britishmuseum.…

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1662

1663

  • Nov

1664

1667

1668