of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III.; Henry’s mother was Margaret, daughter of Edmund Beaufort, 2nd duke of Somerset, grandson of John of Gaunt. Thus he came on both sides of the blood royal, and this, coupled with the vastness of his inheritance, made the young duke’s future of importance to Edward IV. He was recognized as duke in 1465, and next year was married to Catherine Woodville, the queen’s sister. On reaching manhood he was made a knight of the Garter in 1474, and in 1478 was high steward at the trial of George, duke of Clarence. He had not otherwise filled any position of importance, but his fidelity might seem to have been secured by his marriage. However, after Edward’s death, Buckingham was one of the first persons worked upon by Richard, duke of Gloucester. It was through his help that Richard obtained possession of the young king, and he was at once rewarded with the offices of justiciar and chamberlain of North and South Wales, and constable of all the royal castles in the principality and Welsh Marches. In the proceedings which led to the deposition of Edward V. he took a prominent part, and on the 24th of June 1483 he urged the citizens at the Guildhall to take Richard as king, in a speech of much eloquence, “for he was neither unlearned and of nature marvellously well spoken.” (More). At Richard’s coronation he served as chamberlain, and immediately afterwards was made constable of England and confirmed in his powers in Wales. Richard might well have believed that the duke’s support was secured. But early in August Buckingham withdrew from the court to Brecon. He may have thought that he deserved an even greater reward, or possibly had dreams of establishing his own claims to the crown. At all events, at Brecon he fell somewhat easily under the influence of his prisoner, John Morton (q.v.), who induced him to give his support to his cousin Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond. A widespread plot was soon formed, but Richard had early warning, and on the 15th of October, issued a proclamation against Buckingham. Buckingham, as arranged, prepared to enter England with a large force of Welshmen. His advance was stopped by an extraordinary flood on the Severn, his army melted away without striking a blow, and he himself took refuge with a follower, Ralph Bannister, at Lacon Hall, near Wem. The man betrayed him for a large reward, and on the 1st of November, Buckingham was brought to the king at Salisbury. Richard refused to see him, and after a summary trial had him executed next day (2nd of November 1483), though it was a Sunday.
Buckingham’s eldest son, Edward (1478–1521), eventually succeeded him as 3rd duke, the attainder being removed in 1485; the second son, Henry, was afterwards earl of Wiltshire. The 3rd duke played an important part as lord high constable at the opening of the reign of Henry VIII., and is introduced into Shakespeare’s play of that king, but he fell through his opposition to Wolsey, and in 1521 was condemned for treason and executed (17th of May); the title was then forfeited with his attainder, his only son Henry (1501–1563), who in his father’s lifetime was styled earl of Stafford, being, however, given back his estates in 1522, and in 1547 restored in blood by parliament with the title of Baron Stafford, which became extinct in this line with Roger, 5th Baron in 1640. In that year the barony of Stafford was granted to William Howard (1614–1680), who after two months was created Viscount Stafford; he was beheaded in 1680, and his son was created earl of Stafford in 1688, a title which became extinct in 1762; but in 1825 the descent to the barony of 1640 was established, to the satisfaction of the House of Lords, in the person of Sir G. W. Jerningham, in whose family it then continued.
The chief original authorities for the life of the 2nd duke of Buckingham are the Continuation of the Croyland Chronicle; Sir Thomas More’s Richard III.; and Fabyan’s Chronicle. Amongst modern authorities consult J. Gairdner’s Richard III.; and Sir. J. Ramsay’s Lancaster and York. (C. L. K.)
BUCKINGHAM, JAMES SILK (1786–1855), English author and traveller, was born near Falmouth on the 25th of August 1786, the son of a farmer. His youth was spent at sea. After years of wandering he established in 1818 the Calcutta Journal. This venture at first proved highly successful, but in 1823 the paper’s outspoken criticisms of the East India Company led to the expulsion of Buckingham from India and to the suppression of the paper by John Adam, the acting governor-general. His case was brought before parliament, and a pension of £200 a year was subsequently awarded him by the East India Company as compensation. Buckingham continued his journalistic ventures on his return to England, and started the Oriental Herald (1824) and the Athenaeum (1828) which was not a success in his hands. In parliament, where he sat as member for Sheffield from 1832–1837, he was a strong advocate of social reform. He was a most voluminous writer. He had travelled much in Europe, America and the East, and wrote a great number of useful books of travel. In 1851 the value of these and of his other literary work was recognized by the grant of a civil list pension of £200 a year. At the time of his death in London, on the 30th of June 1855, Buckingham was at work on his autobiography, two volumes of the intended four being completed and published (1855).
His youngest son, Leicester Silk Buckingham (1825–1867), achieved no little popularity as a playwright, several of his free adaptations of French comedies being produced in London between 1860 and 1867.
BUCKINGHAM, a market town and municipal borough and the county town of Buckinghamshire, England, in the Buckingham parliamentary division, 61 m. N.W. of London by a branch of the London & North-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 3152. It lies in an open valley on the upper part of the river Ouse, which encircles the main portion of the town on three sides. The church of St Peter and St Paul, which was extensively restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, a native of this neighbourhood, is of the 18th century, and stands on the site of the old castle; the town hall dates from the close of the previous century; and the grammar school was founded by Edward VI., in part occupying buildings of earlier date, which retain Perpendicular and Decorated windows, and a Norman door. A chantry, founded in 1268 by Matthew Stratton, archdeacon of Buckingham, previously occupied the site; the Norman work may be a remnant of the chapel of a gild of the Holy Trinity. The manor house is of the early part of the 17th century, and other old houses remain. The adjacent mansion of Stowe, approached from the town by a magnificent avenue of elms, and surrounded by gardens very beautifully laid out, was the seat of the dukes of Buckingham until the extinction of the title in 1889. Buckingham is served by a branch of the Grand Junction Canal, and has agricultural trade, manufactures of condensed milk and artificial manure, maltings and flour-mills; while an old industry survives to a modified extent in the manufacture of pillow-lace. The borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 5006 acres.
Buckingham (Bochingeham, Bukyngham) was an important stronghold in pre-Conquest times, and in 918 Edward the Elder encamped there with his army for four weeks, and threw up two forts on either side of the water. At the time of the Domesday survey there were twenty-six burgesses in Buckingham, which, together with the hamlet of Bourton, was assessed at one hide. Although it appears as a borough thus early, the town received no charter until 1554, when Queen Mary created it a free borough corporate with a bailiff, twelve principal burgesses and a steward, and defined the boundaries as extending in width from Dudley bridge to Thornborowe bridge and in length from Chackmore bridge to Padbury Mill bridge. A charter from Charles II. in 1684 was very shortly abandoned in favour of the original grant, which held force until the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835. In 1529 and from 1545 onwards Buckingham returned two members to parliament, until deprived by the Representation of the People Act of 1867 of one member, and by the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 of the other. Early mentions occur of markets and fairs, and from 1522, when Henry VIII. granted to Sir Henry Marney the borough of Buckingham with a Saturday market and two annual fairs, grants of fairs by various sovereigns were numerous. Buckingham was formerly an important agricultural centre, and Edward III. fixed here one of the staples for wool, but after the removal of these to Calais the trade suffered such decay that in an act of 32 Henry VIII. Buckingham is mentioned among thirty-six impoverished towns.
BUCKINGHAM AND NORMANBY, JOHN SHEFFIELD, 1st Duke of (1648–1721), English statesman and poet, was born on
