, duke of Buckingham, and memorable in English story for having been the favourite of two kings, was born Aug. 20, 1592, at Brookesby in Leicestershire, and was
, duke of Buckingham, and memorable in English story for having been the favourite of
two kings, was born Aug. 20, 1592, at Brookesby in Leicestershire, and was the son of sir George Villiers, by a
second wife of the ancient family of Beaumont. At an
early age he was sent to a private school in that county,
but never discovered any genius for letters; so that more
regard was had in the course of his education to the accomplishments of a gentleman than those of a scholar. About
eighteen, he travelled into France, where he made himself
familiar with the French language, and with all the exercises of the noblesse; such as fencing and dancing, in
which last he particularly excelled. Soon after his return
to England, which was at the end of three years, his mother, who was a sagacious and enterprising woman, introduced him at court; concluding probably, and not without
good reason, that a young gentleman of his fine person and
accomplishments could not fail of making his fortune under
such a monarch as James I. The king, about March
1614-15, went according to his custom to take his huntingpleasures at Newmarket; and the Cambridge scholars, who
knew the king’s humour, invited him to a play, called “Ignoramus.
” At this play it was contrived, that Viiliers
should appear with every advantage of dress and person;
and the king no sooner cast his eyes upon him than he became confounded with admiration; for, says lord Clarendon, “though he was a prince of more learning and knowledge than any other of that age, and really delighted
more in books and in the conversation of learned men, yet,
of all wise men living, he was the most delighted and taken
with handsome persons and fine cloaths.
” Thus he conceived such a liking to the person of Villiers, that he “resolved, as sir Henry Wotton says, to make him a
masterpiece; and to mould him, as it were, Platonically to his
own idea.
”
, eldest son of the preceding, was born Aug. 20, 1629, at Peter- house, Cambridge, ut which time
, eldest son of the preceding,
was born Aug. 20, 1629, at Peter- house, Cambridge, ut
which time his father was master of that college. His first
education was in that university, heing admitted of St.
Peter’s-college in 1642, whence he removed to Oxford,
where he was a student, not in a college or hall, but in a
private house, as he could not conform to the principles or
practises of the persons who then had the government of
the university. At the restoration' he was elected burgess
of St. Michael in Cornwall, in the parliament which began
May8, 1661, and was appointed secretary to the earl of
Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England, who visiting
the university of Oxford, of which he was chancellor, in
Sept. 1661, Mr. Wren was there created master of arts.
He was one of the first members of the Royal Society,
when they began their weekly meetings at London, in
166O. After the fall of his patron, the earl of Clarendon,
he became secretary to James duke of York, in whose service he continued till his death, June 11, 1672, in the fortythird year of his age. He was interred in the same vault
with his father, in the chapel of Pembroke- hall, Cambridge.
He wrote, 1. “Considerations on Mr. Harrington’s Commonwealth of Oceana, restrained to the first part of the
preliminaries, London, 1657,
” in 8vo. To this book is prefixed a long letter of our author to Dr. John Wilkins, warden of Wadham-college in Oxford, who had desired him
to give his judgment concerning Mr. Harrington’s “Oceana.
” Harrington answered this work in the first book of
his “Prerogative of popular government,
” had an excellent fcculty of mag^
nifying a louse, and diminishing a commonwealth.
” Mr.
Wren replied in 2, “Monarchy asserted; or, the State of
Monarchical and Popular Government, in vindication of
the considerations on Mr. Harrington’s * Oceana,' London,
1659,
” in 8vo. Harrington’s rejoinder was an indecent
piece of buffoonery, entitled “Politicaster i or, a Comical
Discourse in^answer to Mr. Wren’s book, entitled ‘ Monarchy asserted, &c.’
” Life,
” was very solicitous, that
Mr. Wren should undertake a confutation of Hobbes’s “Leviathan:
” “I hope,
” says he, “it is only modesty in Mr.
Wren, that makes hirn pause upon undertaking the work
you have recommended to him; for I dare swear, by what
I have seen of him, he is very equal to answer every part of
it: I mean, every part that requires an answer. Nor is
there need of a professed divine to vindicate the Creator
from making man a verier beast than any of those of the
field, or to vindicate scripture from his licentious interpretation. I dare say, he will find somewhat in Mr. Hobbes
himself, I mean, in his former books, that contradicts what
he sets forth in this, in that part in which he takes himself
to be most exact, his beloved philosophy. And sure there
is somewhat due to Aristotle and Tuily, and to our
universities, to free them from his reproaches; and it is high
time, if what I hear be true, that some tutors read his Leviathan, instead of the others, to their pupils. Mr. Hobbes
is my old friend, yet I cannot absolve him from the mischiefs he hath done to the king, the church, the laws, and
the nation; and surely there should be enough to be said
to the politics of that man, who, having resolved all religion, wisdom, and honesty, into an implicit obedience to
the laws established, writes a book of policy, which, I may
be bold to say, must be, by the established laws of any
kingdom or province in Europe, condemned for impious
and seditious: and therefore it will be very hard if the
fundamentals of it be not overthrown. But I must ask
both yours and Mr. Wren’s pardon for enlarging so much,
and antedating those animadversions he will make upon it.
”