| Authorised form of name | Villiers; George (1628 - 1687); 2nd Duke of Buckingham; politician and wit |
| Dates | 1628 - 1687 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Wallingford House, Westminster, London, England, Europe |
| Date of birth | 30 January 1628 |
| Place of death | Kirkby Moorside, Yorkshire, England, Europe |
| Date of death | 16 April 1687 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Burial:
St George's chapel in Westminster Abbey, London, England, Europe (7 June 1687) |
| Occupation | Politician; statesman; writer |
| Research field | Chemistry |
| Alchemy |
| Activity | Education:
Christ Church, Oxford; Trinity College, Cambridge, MA (fil nob 1642)
Career:
Joined Royalist Army (1642); proscribed and sentenced to death (1648); fled to Holland (1648); with Charles II in Scotland (1650); fought at Worcester (1651); returned to Holland (1651); returned to England (1657); imprisoned in the Tower of London (1658-1659); set up the Vauxhall glassworks factory at Lambeth, the productions of which were praised by John Evelyn FRS (1660); gentleman of the bedchamber (1661); Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire (1661-1667, recommisioned later in 1667); Privy Councillor (1662-1667); one of the 'Cabal', the cabinet signatories to a treaty with France (1667-1672); played a leading role in the impeachement of former Lord Chancellor Clarendon (1667) shareholder in the Royal African Company; Committee for Foreign affairs (1668); purchased position as Master of the Horse for £20,000 (1668-1674); fought an infamous duel with the Earl of Shrewsbury whose wife was Buckingham's mistress, Shrewsbury later died of his wounds (1668); High Steward of Oxford (1669); Ambassador to Paris (1670-1672); Chancellor of Cambridge University (1671-1674); attached to the embassy to The Hague (June 1672); Keeper of Enfield Chace (1672-1675); Lieutenant General of the Forces (1673); Lord of the Admiralty (1673-1674); dismissed from all offices (1674); imprisoned in the Tower of London for seeking the dissolution of parliament (1677) released after a month thanks to the influence of Nell Gwyn, the King's mistress and other courtiers; lived in retirement in Yorkshire; author of restoration plays, notably 'The Chances' (1667) adpated from John Fletcher's comedy and the popular satire 'The Rehersal' (1671), he also wrote poetry and satirical prose and was famed as a wit
Honours:
KG 1649 |
| Membership category | Original Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/05/1663 |
| Age at election | 53 |
| Date of ejection or withdrawal | 22/07/1685 |
| Other Royal Society activity | Expelled due to non-payment of arrears |
| Relationships | Parents: George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Manners; succeeded his father (1628)
Married: Mary Fairfax |
| OtherInfo | Villiers was a patron to Thomas Sprat (FRS 1663).
Villiers was a shareholder in The Royal Adventurers into Africa, later Royal African Company (RAC). The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC was made up of and funded by members of the Stuart royal family and London merchants many of whom were, or went on to become, Fellows of the Royal Society. The Royal Society itself held shares in the company from 1682 until 1699. The RAC held a monopoly on English trade on the west coast of Africa. The principal interest of the company was originally gold and secondarily other natural resources. The Company's second charter in 1663 mentions trade in enslaved people, who were mainly sold into slavery on British owned estates in the West Indies and America. The Jesus College Cambridge Legacy of Slavery Working Party has stated that the RAC was responsible for selling more Africans into slavery in America than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and that they ran a brutal regime with the full knowledge of their investors. The company became insolvent in 1708, it survived until 1752 when its assets were transferred to the new African Company of Merchants, which lasted until 1821.
As a member of the Council for Foreign Plantations, within the Board of Trade government body, Villiers worked to further the government's colonial interest. In his post, he made £500 quarterly. The Council's orders and tasks fell within a broad remit and included finding ways in which to take and enslave people to bring to the colonies, mediating between the Royal African Company and the colonies, as well as enforcing the 'reeducation' of Native Americans and enslaved people in the colonised regions. |
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| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Venn; Foster; GEC; Davies; Wikipedia; ODNB
References:
Melton F T. 1988. ‘A rake refinanced: the fortune of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 1628–85’, in Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 51, pp. 297–318
Govier M. 1999. 'The Royal Society, Slavery and the Island of Jamaica: 1660-1700', in Notes and Records, vol. 53 pp. 203-217
Davies, K G. 1999. 'The Royal African Company' (Longmans, Green)
Pettigrew, W A. 2013. 'Freedom's debt : the Royal African Company and the politics of the Atlantic slave trade, 1672-1752.' (University of North Carolina Press)
Associated material:
Brian Fairfax's life of Buckingham, BL, Harleian MS 6862
Notes:
The election date is Villier's re-election date into the Society after the grant of the second charter in April 1663. All Fellows admitted in a two-month window after this charter, until 22 June 1663, are considered Original Fellows. He was previously admitted into the Society on 5 June 1661. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/41858327 |
| Code | NA3322 |