BUCKINGHAM, 2d Duke of (GEORGE VILLIERS), a brilliant but profligate nobleman, son of the was b. at Wallingford house, Westminster, Jan. 30, 1627, and studied at Cambridge. On the outbreak of the civil wars, he served in the royal army; his estates were confiscated by the parliament, and he took refuge on the continent. He attended Charles II. into Scotland, and after the battle of Worcester, in 1651, went again into exile. Returning secretly into England, he married, in 1657, the daughter of lord Fairfax, the parliamentary general, to whom his forfeited estates had been assigned. Arrested by Cromwell, and committed to the Tower, he was afterwards removed to Windsor castle, but released on the abdication of Richard Cromwell. At the restoration, he recovered his estates, and was made master of the horse, and sworn of the privy. council. He was mainly instrumental in the fall of the chancellor, Clarendon, whom he made an object of ridicule to the king, and was one of Charles's confidential minis ters, who, from the initial letters of their titles, were called "the Cabal." Engaging
in 1666 in some treasonable practices for effecting a change in the government, he was deprived of all his offices at court, but, on his submission, soon recovered them. In 1670, he was sent ambassador to France, and was employed on some other embassies. He was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge in 1671. Supporting the non conformists in 1674, he opposed the test act, and was deeply engaged in the popish plot. After Charles's death, in 1685, B. retired to his manor of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, and amused himself with the chase. He died at Kirkhy-Moorside, ApriJ 16, 1688, and was interred in Westminster abbey. The manufacture of glass and crystal is said to have been introduced into England from Venice by him. B. was the author of several stage plays, of which the best is The Rehearsal, a comedy; A Satire against Mankind; and some poems.