The Earl of Nottingham, who in the late reign made so great a figure as a sea officer, was, in this, employed as an ambassador; the pacific king thinking that he could do as much by negotiation, as Elizabeth did by fighting. In his embassy to Spain, he was attended by a splendid train of five hundred persons. The ignorant Spaniards, who had heard much of the Kentish long-tails, and other monsters, in this nation of heretics, were astonished when he made his public entry, not only at seeing the human form, but at seeing it in superior health and beauty to what in their own country it appeared. Ob. 1624. GEORGE, earl of Buckingham, &c. 1617. Simon Passaus sc. L. Laur. Lisle exc. a head in an oval. GEORGE, marquis of Buckingham, &c. Simon Passaus sc. To the knees; in an oval. Jan. 30, GEORGE VILLIERS, duke, marquis, and earl of Promoted Buckingham; on horseback; ships, &c. alluding to his 1617318 office of lord high admiral. Guil. Passaus; h. sh. 1617-18. 1623. The Duke of Buckingham, by the elegance of his person,† and Cr. duke the courtliness of his address, presently gained as great an ascendant over James, as the favourite of any other prince is known to have done by a long course of assiduity and insinuation. It is no * It is observable, that Mons. Buffon includes the seat of beauty within a certain latitude, so as just to take in all France, and exclude England. One would imagine, that he formed his ideas of the persons of the English from the vile portraits of some of their engravers. It was for his fine face that the king usually called him Stenny, which is the diminutive of Stephen. He, by this appellation, paid a very singular compliment to the splendour of his beauty, alluding to Acts vi. 15, where it is said of St. Stephen, "All that sat in the council looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel." Some of the duke's compliments and expressions of servility to the king were no less singular in their kind: one of his letters concludes with, "Your faithful Dog STENNY." He did not long retain his good looks; see his latter portraits. At his first coming to court, when his majesty cast his eye on him, he asked Lord Arundel what he thought of him; who answered that his blushing bashfulness was such as he thought would but ill succeed at court. However, he soon gained the ascendant; from which his majesty formed an opinion, that bashfulness did soonest prerail at court.-LORD HAILES. Promot. wonder that an accumulation of honour, wealth, and power, upon a vain man, suddenly raised from a private station, should be so invidious; and especially as the duke was as void of prudence and moderation in the use of these, as the fond king was in bestowing them. But it must be acknowledged, that this great man was not without his virtues. He had all the courage and sincerity of a soldier; and was one of those few courtiers who were as honest and open in their enmity, as military men are in their friendship. He was the last reigning favourite that ever tyrannized in this kingdom.* See the next reign. GREAT OFFICERS OF SCOTLAND. LODOWICK, duke of Richmond, lord greatchamberlain, and admiral of Scotland, &c. Simon Passæus sc. 4to. See the next division. LODOWICK, duke of Richmond; 4to. S. Pass; 1616. LODOWICK, duke of Richmond; whole length, in his robes, fol. P. v. Somer. Clamp sc. 1795. LODOWICK, duke of Richmond, lying in state; curious. LODOWICK, duke of Richmond and Lenox (or 1615. Lennox), lord-steward of his majesty's household. There is still a tradition in Spain, that the Duke of Buckingham, who had ever a violent propensity to intrigue, was very particular in his addresses to the Countess of Olivares, who made an ample discovery of his gallantry to her husband. Upon which it was concerted betwixt them, that the countess should make the duke an assignation, and substitute a girl who had been long infected with an infamous distemper, in her place. The assignation was accordingly made, and the effect fully answered their expectation. This story, supposing it a fact, which Lord Clarendon will not allow, accounts for the duke's avowing the most determined enmity against Olivares, at parting from him; and is similar to his conduct in France, where he had the temerity to be as particular in his addresses to Anne of Austria, queen of Lewis XIII. Arthur Wilson plainly hints at this piece of secret history, which passed current in his time. See Wilson's Life of James I. in Kennet's " Complete Hist." vol. ii. p. 773. P. v. S. (Paul van Somer) p. Jo. Barra sc. 1624; whole length; large h. sh. very scarce and fine. At the Earl of Pomfret's, at Easton, was a portrait of him by Rubens; there is one at Gorhambury; but the most considerable is the excellent whole length of him, by Van Somer, at Petworth. This nobleman was son to Esme Stuart, duke of Lenox in Scotland, and grandson to John, lord D'Aubigne, younger brother to Matthew, earl of Lenox, who was grandfather to King James. On the 17th of May, 21 of James I. he was created earl of Newcastle, and duke of Richmond. He had a great share of the king's confidence and esteem; which, indeed, he merited, as he was a man of an excellent character. He married three wives his first was of the family of Ruthven; his second of that of Campbell; and his last, Frances, daughter of Thomas, viscount Howard, of Bindon. He died suddenly, 1623. His dutchess assigned a very particular reason for his being in high health the night before he was found dead in his bed.* JAMES, marquis of Hamilton, &c. Martin D. (Droeshout) sc. London, 1623; a whole length, in armour, standing in a tent with fringed curtains. On a table is a helmet, with a large crest of bristles and ostrich's plumes; a small h. sh. I have seen some proofs of this print without the inscription: these were taken when the plate was much worn. There is an octavo print of him, by Vaughan; which has been mistaken for a portrait of his son, who was beheaded. James, marquis of Hamilton, was a distinguished favourite of Created King James, who, before he was twenty-one years of age, appointed 1599. him one of the gentlemen of his bed-chamber, and a lord of his privy council. He was afterward made steward of his majesty's household, and, in 1619, created a peer of England, by the title of Baron of Innerdale, in Cumberland, and Earl of Cambridge. In 1621, he was appointed lord high-commissioner of the parliament *Kennet, ii. p. 777. of Scotland. On the 7th of July, 1623, he was installed knight of the Garter. He was naturalized in England by act of parliament, and died in 1625. See more of him in Douglas's Peerage of Scotland," p. 333. 66 ROBERTUS CAR, comes Somerset. S. P. (Simon Passaus) sc. 4to. Compton Holland exc. ROBERTUS CAR, &c. two Latin lines at bottom, "Hic ille est," &c. small 4to. ROBERT CAR, earl of Somerset, viscount Rochester, &c. and the Lady Frances, his wife; 4to. in a book, entitled "Truth brought to Light, and discovered by Time; or, a Discourse and historical Narration of the first fourteen Years of King James's Reign," 1651, There is a copy of this print before" The Cases of Impotency," printed by Curl. It was engraved by Michael Vandergucht. 4to. ROBERT CAR, earl of Somerset. Houbraken sc. Illust. Head. This portrait, which represents him as a black robust man, is not genuine. The Earl of Somerset had light hair, and a reddish beard.* His face was rather effeminate; a kind of beauty which took much with James the First. At Newbottle, the Marquis of Lothian's, not far from Edinburgh, is a head of him, with small features and flaxen hair. Robert Car was page to King James before his accession to the throne of England; and was, at his coronation, made one of the knights of the Bath. This circumstance is contradictory to the story so confidently told by several of our historians, of his introduction to the king at a tilting, about eight years after. He was afterward created viscount Rochester, and earl of Somerset; and was advanced to the office of lord-chamberlain. On the death of the made lord- Earl of Salisbury, he became prime minister, and dispenser of the Cr. earl Nov. 4, 1613; and chamber lain, July 10, 1614. * See Lloyd's "State Worthies," p. 746. † See Dr. Birch's Livés, with the "Illustrious Heads," vol. ii. p. 19. |