Representing the Duke of Buckingham
Libel, Counter‐Libel and the Example of The Emperor’s Favourit e
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12880834 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Siobhan Keenan (0000-0003-2317-9042, De Montfort University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 292-305 |
| Publication date | 2012-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Literature Compass (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2012.00880.x |
| OpenAlex | W1748692826 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
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
Ancient history · Art · Art history · Buckingham · Emperor · Favourite · Literature · MOZART · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Scottish History and National Identity
Writing the English Republic
Political Satire in Early Stuart England
The culture of piracy, 1580-1630
The Reputation of Robert Cecil
The Brightnes of the Noble Leiutenants Action
Anticourt Drama in England 1603-1642
Travelling Players in Shakespeare’s England
John Felton, Popular Political Culture, and the Assassination of the Duke of Buckingham
The Murder of John Lambe
Libels, Popular Literacy and Public Opinion in Early Modern England
News and Politics in Early Seventeenth-Century England
Ballads, Libels and Popular Ridicule in Jacobean England
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |