Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/350

Villiers gust when Schomberg was appointed general over his head (ib. iii. 654; Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, ed. Christie, i. 12, 67, 91, 99). He had by this time learnt the secret of the treaty of Dover, and the old grudge between himself and Arlington became in the latter part of 1673 open enmity. He threatened to impeach Arlington, and endeavoured to procure money from Louis XIV to form a party in the House of Commons (ib. i. 119, ii. 29, 92). But Charles supported Arlington, and told the French ambassador that he only continued to show Buckingham favour in order to deprive him of credit with parliament (, iv. 240;, Louise de Kéroualle, p. 75).

In January 1674 a combined attack upon Buckingham was commenced in both houses (Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, ii. 105). In the lords the trustees of the young Earl of Shrewsbury petitioned for redress, alleging that Buckingham not only ostentatiously lived with the countess, but that they had shamelessly caused a baseborn son of theirs to be solemnly interred in Westminster Abbey under the title of Earl of Coventry. Buckingham put in a long apologetic narrative, professing penitence and promising to avoid scandal for the future; but the lords required the duke and the countess to give bonds for 10,000l. apiece that they would not cohabit again (Lords' Journals, xii. 599, 628; Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. ii. 35;, Westminster Registers, p. 173). On 13 Jan. 1674 the commons attacked Buckingham as the author of the French alliance and a promoter of popery and arbitrary government. He was heard twice in his defence, and sought to cast all the blame upon Arlington, declaring that if his advice had been followed France would not have reaped all the profits of the alliance, and the House of Commons would have been consulted as to the treaty. His vindication was inconclusive and unsuccessful. The house voted an address requesting the king to remove Buckingham from all employments held during his majesty's pleasure, and from his presence and councils for ever (, Debates, ii. 245–70; Letters to Sir Joseph Williamson, ii. 105, 115, 131;, iv. 256–63). Charles, angered by the revelations which the duke had made in his attempt to save himself, was delighted to throw him overboard. An appeal to the king, recounting his losses in the royal cause and begging leave to sell his office of master of the horse, was apparently fruitless (Fairfax Correspondence, iv. 249).

Buckingham now entered on a new phase in his career. He reformed his way of living, was seen in church with his wife, kept regular hours, and began to pay his debts (, p. 80; Essex Papers, pp. 167, 173). At the same time he became a patriot, and was welcomed by the country party as one of their leaders. ‘He was so far a gainer,’ wrote Marvell, ‘that with the loss of his offices and dependence he was restored to the freedom of his own spirit, to give thenceforward those admirable proofs of the vigour and vivacity of his better judgment, in asserting, though to his own imprisonment, the due liberties of the English nation’ (, Works, ed. Grosart, iv. 299; cf., ii. 81). In the spring of 1675 he distinguished himself by his speeches and protests against the bill for imposing a non-resistance oath on the nation (, i. 467;, Proceedings of the House of Lords, 1742, i. 157). ‘Never were poor men exposed and abused all the session as the bishops were by the Duke of Buckingham upon the Test.’ The next session, on 16 Nov. 1675, he brought in a bill for the relief of protestant dissenters, which was read a first time but went no further (Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. ii. 68; for his speech see Miscellaneous Works, vol. i.; and, i. 164). The king now prorogued parliament for fifteen months, and as soon as it met again (15 Feb. 1677) Buckingham raised the question whether it was not dissolved by this prorogation, it being contrary to two unrepealed statutes of Edward III. Shaftesbury, Wharton, and Salisbury supported his proposition, but the house rejected the motion and ordered the four lords to ask pardon, and, on their refusal, sent them to the Tower (16 Feb.) Buckingham's contemptuous treatment of the censure inflicted upon him enraged both the lords and the king (ib. i. 187; Miscellaneous Works, vol. i.; Life of James II, i. 506; Report on the Duke of Rutland's MSS. ii. 39).

In July 1677 Buckingham was released for a month, and, thanks to the influence of Nell Gwyn and others of ‘the merry gang,’ his release was made permanent (, Correspondence, pp. 50, 58, 62, 66; Portland MSS. iii. 354). The vote committing the four peers to the Tower was annulled by the House of Lords on 13 Nov. 1680.

Buckingham at once began a new course of intrigues. In the spring of 1678 and through 1679 he was concerting measures with Barillon to prevent the king from obtaining supplies, and to force him to dissolve his army. He did not hesitate to ask and to receive money. Barillon found him (April 1678) the only one of the opposition leaders disposed to enter into formal and immediate