Representing the Duke of Buckingham: Libel, Counter‐Libel and the Example of The Emperor’s Favourit e

Abstract George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, enjoyed a spectacular rise to power at the Stuart court as the favourite of James I, and his son and heir, Charles I. But the Stuart monarchs’ admiration of Villiers was not shared by all. By the 1620s there was growing anxiety about the extent of his power, and Buckingham faced increasing opposition in parliament and beyond, as is reflected in parliament’s attempt to impeach him (1626), the issuing of a parliamentary remonstrance against him (1628), a massive proliferation of libellous works satirising him, including poems and plays, and his eventual assassination on 23 August 1628. This essay explores one contemporary Buckingham libel that has yet to receive sustained attention, but which sheds fascinating new light on competing contemporary perceptions of Buckingham, court favourites, and the Stuart political scene: The Emperor’s Favourite (published for the first time in 2010). Probably written by Warwickshire gentleman John Newdigate III (1600–42), The Emperor’s Favourite is a tragedy which superficially tells the story of the rise and fall of Crispinus, corrupt favourite of Roman emperor Nero, but a series of topical parallels makes clear that the play uses classical history to offer an oblique satire of Buckingham and the Stuart court.