Buckingham, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of 1627-87
English politician

He was born in London, son of the 1st Duke. After his father's assassination in 1628 he was brought up with Charles I's children. At the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Royalists. In 1648 he joined the rising by Lord Holland in Surrey and barely escaped with his life (his younger brother was killed). He went with Charles II to Scotland, and after the Battle of Worcester went into exile. Returning secretly to England, in 1657 he married the daughter of Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary general to whom his forfeited estates had been assigned. At the Restoration he recovered his estates, became a Privy Councillor, and for the next 25 years excelled the other courtiers in debauchery and wit. In 1667 he killed in a duel the Earl of Shrewsbury, whose countess, his lover, watched disguised as a page. He was involved in Clarendon's downfall and was a member of the infamous Cabal of Charles II. He lost influence to the Earl of Arlington, and in 1674 was dismissed from government for alleged Catholic sympathies. He was the author and part-author of several comedies, the wittiest of them being The Rehearsal (1671), a parody of Dryden's tragedies, but he is better known as the 'Zimri' of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.

Bibliography: H W Chapman, Great Villiers (1949)