In 1615, a beautiful young courtier knelt before King James I to be knighted. In that moment, the newly minted Sir George Villiers stepped onto the ladder of preferment that would lift him from country gentleman to first Duke of Buckingham in just eight years. In a land with a long history of royal favorites, from Edward II and Piers Gaveston to Elizabeth I and the Earl of Essex, Buckingham played the part to perfection as the favorite of two kings—James I and Charles I— amassing an abundance of wealth and power in the process.
Lucy Hughes-Hallett’s excellent new biography, The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, tells this story of a most dramatic rise and fall with verve and elegance. Creating a complex portrait of the early-17th-century English court, she breaks the story into brief chapters that intersperse Buckingham’s history with fascinating accounts of elaborate dramatic dances known as masques, art collections, medicine, jewelry, hunting, and clothes. And Jacobean London lends her a splendid cast of supporting players: John Donne, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, Anthony van Dyke, and Inigo Jones all make appearances in the account. Buckingham lived at the center of this fabulous milieu, commissioning portraits by Sir Peter Paul Rubens and asking Sir Francis Bacon for advice.
