. Historical portraits ... the lives of Fletcher .. . ed upon Court life, an almostpenniless adventurer. His sprightly and agreeable manners and hishandsome face at once attracted the notice of James, now wearyingof Somersets dictatorial ways and glad to welcome a new favourite,on whom he might bestow his sentimental affections. Villiers roserapidlj in favour, and in 1616 was made Master of the Horse,a Knight of the Garter, and a peer, though as yet his influencewas purely personal. Nevertheless, he occasionally acted as theKings agent in politics, and, as he began to feel his power ove
. Historical portraits ... the lives of Fletcher .. . ed upon Court life, an almostpenniless adventurer. His sprightly and agreeable manners and hishandsome face at once attracted the notice of James, now wearyingof Somersets dictatorial ways and glad to welcome a new favourite,on whom he might bestow his sentimental affections. Villiers roserapidlj in favour, and in 1616 was made Master of the Horse,a Knight of the Garter, and a peer, though as yet his influencewas purely personal. Nevertheless, he occasionally acted as theKings agent in politics, and, as he began to feel his power over theKings mind, more ambitious prospects opened out before steps in the peerage of Earl and Marquis followed in quicksuccession. As Lord High Admiral he did something to remedythe decay of the Navy, but foreign policy offered a more enticingfield, at a cost of less labour, for the display of his volatile much vacillation between friendship and hostility to Spain, hismarriage in 1620 with Lady Katherine Manners, a Catholic at heart. < 3 < 2 X u 2 D K 1^ - D o 3 o ? GEORGE VILLIERS 43 though formally a recent convert to the Church of England, led himto adopt Jamess scheme for a Spanish marriage with characteristicardour. His old plans for saving the Palatinate were thrown over;he had frequent conferences with Gondomar, the Spanish Ambas-sador, and when Prince Charles finally started for Madrid in February1623, Buckingham went with him. As usual he had entirely mis-calculated the obstacles to be faced, but he deserves some credit forshaking himself free very soon after his arrival from his delusionsas to Spanish compliance on the religious question. He advisedCharles to return home and did his best to hurry his de-parture by conspicuous rudeness to the Spaniards. Once back inLondon he set himself to preach war against Spain, in a violentrevulsion from his former views caused by his chagrin at havingbeen, as he considered, duped. During his
Size: 1344px × 1859px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectportraitpainting
