The Life and Times of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. CHARACTER OP THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM?HIS PATRONAGE OF ART?HIS COLLECTION?THE SPANISH COURT DESCRIBED COLLECTION BT CHARLES I, ?FATE OF THESE PICTURES. CHAPTER IV. Whatever may have been the failings of the Duke of Buckingham as a husband, he marked hie confidence in his wife by his will. That...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. CHARACTER OP THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM?HIS PATRONAGE OF ART?HIS COLLECTION?THE SPANISH COURT DESCRIBED COLLECTION BT CHARLES I, ?FATE OF THESE PICTURES. CHAPTER IV. Whatever may have been the failings of the Duke of Buckingham as a husband, he marked hie confidence in his wife by his will. That last act of his life gave the Duchess power over all his personal property, as well as a life possession of all his mansion-houses, with a fourth of his lands in jointure. That his debts were considerable, has been amply shewn during the course of the preceding narrative. Previous to his expedition to Rh6, he had wisely put his revenues into the hands of commissioners, and placed it out of his own power to manage or mismanage his own affairs. His occupations, as a courtier, as a minister, aa an ambassador, and, lastly, as a general, sufficiently excuse his want of leisure for the control of his expenses, and the systemof retrenchment requisite to relieve him from harassing liabilities. He left, however, an immense amount of capital locked up in pictures; and that famous collection which places him, as Dr. Waagen affirms, in the third rank as a collector of paintings in this country, came into the possession of his son. It was chiefly deposited in York House? that stately structure, so complete and so princely, that in 1663, when it had become the residence of the Russian embassy, Pepys was still amazed at its splendour, although thirty-five eventful years had shaken many a grand fabric to its fall. That, he says, which did please me best, was the remains of the noble soul of the late Duke of Buckingham appearing in his house, in every place, in the door-cases, and the windows. It was in the Court of Madrid that Buckingham had learned to love art, to fav...