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I. H. BAKER, SC.
GEORGE VILLIERS,
Duke of Buckingham.
London: Hurst and Blackett.
THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF
GEORGE VILLIERS
DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
PREFACE.
No complete life of this favourite of James I. andCharles I. has hitherto appeared, except thebiographical sketch by Sir Henry Wotton.
That interesting account deserves all credit,from the character of its author; yet comingfrom one who owed Buckingham great obligations,it is more of a eulogy than a memoir;and is evidently written with a view to silencethose slanderous attacks which not only pursuedthe Duke during his life, but continued afterhis death.
The “Disparity between the Earl of Essexand the Duke of Buckingham,” by Clarendon,printed, as well as Sir Henry Wotton’s Memoirin the “Reliquiæ Wottonianæ,” bears, likewise,the impress of enthusiastic admiration.It is the tribute of a partisan rather than thememorial of an historian.
viThe opinions expressed, nevertheless, in boththese works, have been confirmed, in many points,by the letters in the State Paper Office, to whichhistorical writers have not only now free access,but