Philip Chesney Yorke

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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.) ”