What if Alberto Gonzales Looked Like Jude Law?
James I of England loved the company of attractive younger men. He elevated one, George Villiers, to Duke of Buckingham and let him run the country. This was the same Duke of Buckingham who was rumored to be a lover of Anne of Austria, Queen of France. Think about it: one man having simultaneous affairs with the King of England and the Queen of France.
Unfortunately, Villiers’ talents were limited to the royal bed chambers. As a soldier and government minster, he was a disaster. The King’s Chief Minister lost armies and provoked international crises. He so offended Parliament by both his presumptuous demands and extravagant appearance as to turn the once compliant assembly into an unyielding foe.
When James I died, you would imagine that Buckingham’s future would have shared the grave. However, the Duke remained a platonic favorite of Charles I. Buckingham continued to misrule the realm. His arrogance, corruption and ineptitude so outraged Parliament that a protective Charles I felt obliged to dismiss the legislature. An officer and Puritan named Fenton expressed his opinion of the Duke with a knife…on this day in 1628.
And Parliament still kept a grudge….