CHAPTER III

THE ROMANCE OF THE VILLIERS


The Villiers have had a liberal share of romance, ever since the
far-away days, three centuries and more ago, when the fourth son of Sir
George opened his eyes at Brookesby, in Leicestershire. From being a
"threadbare hanger-on" at Court this son of an obscure knight rose to be
the boon companion of two kings and the lover of a Queen of France.
Honours and riches were showered on this spoiled child of fortune. He
was created, in rapid succession, Viscount and Marquis, and finally Duke
of Buckingham; he won for bride an Earl's daughter, the richest heiress
in the land; and for some years dazzled the world by his splendours and
wealth as he alienated it by his arrogance. And just when his meteoric
career had reached its zenith, his life was closed in tragedy by the
assassin's knife.

His mantle of romance, however, fell on his son and successor, the
second Duke, who was brought up in a Palace nursery, and had for
playmates the children of Charles I.; and who, after a career which in
its dramatic adventure outstripped fiction, ended his turbulent life, if
not, as Pope says,

"In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half-hung,"

at least in extreme poverty and suffering in a Yorkshire inn, at Kirby
Moorside. Of all the vast estates he had inherited, his kinsman, Lord
Arran, said: "There is not so much as one farthing towards defraying the