Quote:
Originally Posted by bfisher
The real Buckingham had a habit of ginning up wars to distract Parliament from impeaching him. He might have been the original Wags the Dog.
At one point, he tried to cut a deal with Richelieu that would have had England provide aid to Richelieu against La Rochelle in exchange for French aid in an English expedition against the Spanish occupation of the Palatinate. That actually made sense, as Charles I was married to Louis' sister and Charles' sister was married to the Elector of the Palatinate.
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You have to give Buckingham credit for parlaying genteel origins and gorgeousness into high office and also for negotiating the change from James I to Charles I so nimbly. Assuming he had indeed been James's lover, it's not every son who'd feel so warmly to his father's boyfriend.
Tangentially, you have to feel a little sorry for Anne of Austria, at least in her fictional version. Buckingham, of course, might not have been gay or bi but just have had an eye for his main chance (a variation on the Victorian exhortation to young women who shrank from the marriage bed, "Close your eyes and think of England."). Louis (the Chaste), on the other hand, showed no physical interest in his wife, even for someone who had a vested interest in an heir of his body. In that day when so much depending on inheritance, there must have been a lot of thinking of England (or country of choice) when it came to marriage and children.