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A character in The Three Musketeers

The Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, the English king's favourite, who crosses to Paris in disguise to see the queen and wears her diamonds on his doublet.

What they want

To see Anne of Austria, at whatever cost to two kingdoms.

The book

The Three MusketeersAlexandre Dumas, 1844

Four swordsmen, a queen's twelve diamonds and a branded woman, told to Paris in daily newspaper parts in the spring of 1844.

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At a glance

Position
First minister of Charles I of England
Death
Stabbed at Portsmouth on 23 August 1628
The real person
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham · 1592–1628 · Brooksby, Leicestershire

Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite and chief minister of Charles I of England, and he was stabbed to death at Portsmouth in August 1628 by a discontented officer named John Felton. Dumas keeps the date and the killer and gives the death a cause: Buckingham's love for the French queen, and Milady's five days with Felton. He is the one man in the book who can make a war to get a look at a woman, and the narrator half admires him for it.

How The Duke of Buckingham Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • Before the glass, Chapter XIIWaiting in the Louvre he settles his hair, twists his moustache and smiles at himself with pride and hope. When a door in the tapestry opens he sees the queen in the mirror and cries out.
  • Three years of love, Chapter XIIHe tells the queen he has loved her for three years on a lost ribbon and a stray look, and describes the green satin gown and the diamonds she wore the first time he saw her.
  • The studs and the jeweller, Chapter XXITwo of the twelve studs are missing, cut at a ball at Windsor. He calls his jeweller O'Reilly into his chapel and has replacements made against the clock.
  • Portsmouth, Chapter LIXFelton pushes past him with a knife and plunges it into his side. He dies asking Laporte whether he comes from the queen, and Felton, hearing that Milady's ship has sailed without him, lowers his head.
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Milady, imprisoned by Lord de Winter, turns her gaoler Felton against him. Felton stabs him at Portsmouth on 23 August 1628, the day he was to sail to relieve La Rochelle. His murder is the charge Lord de Winter brings at Milady's trial.

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