In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4. G E 0 R G E V ILL I E R S , DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM No drooping marigold here; instead, George Villiers (1592-1628) arose, to shift the metaphor, phoenixlike from the ashes of Robert Carr's fall. The sun (king) continued to shine brightly; the marigold (Villiers) retained its beauty and its position. Balthasar Gerbier, an artist who assisted Buckingham in collecting art, wrote to him in Madrid on 25 March 1623: "The King with great affection has sent an express for the little portrait, a proof that the large and the real one is ever in his heart." 1 He adds: "I have painted on the lid of the box the emblem of a sun-dial, the hand of which turns continually towards the pole-star, with these words, Undecumque ad idem; signifying that your Excellency, though absent and transported to distant lands - that your heart and your soul, unchangeable, turn and aspire towards his Majesty continually" (p. 263). Like the marigold, the hand of the sundial tracks the pole star, an apt image of the relationship between king and lover. The box contains Buckingham's portrait; the container of James's heart embraces Buckingham's image. Within these cabinets reside secrets and private thoughts of love. An examination of the extensive correspondence exchanged between James and Buckingham reveals their intimacy and readily documents the homoerotic desire that permeated their relationship. By all sensible accounts, Buckingham becameJames's last and greatest lover. Buckingham's great charm and stunning good looks understandably caught James's attention when they first met at Apethorpe on the king's 1614 progress. But not much happened until 161 5, when Buckingham became a Gentleman of the Bedchamber on 23 April. At this moment Robert Carr stood on the verge of being exposed for involvement in the Overbury murder; he found in Buckingham a natural rival and potential replacement and tried desperately to block his advancement. But as the previous chapter makes clear, James had grown increasingly weary and wary of Carr, frus- trated in this relationship that had once been so meaningful. The presence of the beautiful, youthful, twenty-three-year-old Buckingham surely encouraged James's desire to be rid of Carr. In 1615, disappointed in Carr, disaffected from Queen Anne, separated from his daughter Elizabeth, now married and living in Germany, and uncertain in his relationship with the timid, adolescent Charles, the forty-nine-year-old James seemed particularly susceptible to the appeal of love and beauty that he saw potentially in Buckingham. As Arthur Wilson suggests: "And if the King had not received a new Impression thus, the old Character of Somerset that was imprinted in his soul, could not so soon (as many men thought) have been blotted out."2 One impression, one printing, blots out another: new texts drive out old ones. Wilson adds: "To speak of his Advancement by Degrees, were to lessen the IZings Love; for Titles were heaped upon him, they came rather like showers than drops. For as soon as Somerset declined, he [Buckingham] mounted. Such is the Court motion!" (p. 104). In Wilson's judgment, confirmed by others, by 16I 7 Buckingham reigned "sole Monarch in the Kings affection.... the I 13 We do not know the contents ofBuckingham's intimate ("inward") letter; but we can certainly understand the flame that it kindled in Bacon: a burning love. Bacon felt the pull ofBuckingham's sexual attraction . When Buckingham helped him become lord keeper in 16I 7, Bacon had trouble expressing his gratitude: the great deeds "sink down into the heart with silence" (6: 152). But in his letter he calls Buckingham "the truest and perfectest mirror and example of firm and generous friendship that ever was in court." Of course, Bacon did not always find Buckingham quite the friend that he wanted, especially as he got into trouble by accepting bribes in his position as lord chancellor. Their relationship had its ups and downs, and some of Bacon's letters reflect this tension. But Buckingham did intervene on his behalfwithJames and softened the disgrace and punishment meted out to Bacon, who writes in gratitude and sober reflection in summer 162 I: "I wish myself by you in this stirring world, not for any love to place or business, ... but for my love to yourself, which can never cease" (7: 293). He adds a plaintive postscript : "Being now out ofuse and out of sight, I recommend myself to your Lordship's love and...

Share