Buckingham's failure to protect the Huguenots—indeed, his…

Buckingham's failure to protect the Huguenots—indeed, his attempt to capture Saint-Martin-de-Ré spurs Louis XIII's attack on the Huguenot fortress of La Rochelle—furthers Parliament's detestation of the Duke—“the grievance of grievances,”—and the king's close proximity to this eminence grise.

Buckingham, trying meanwhile to organize a second campaign to relieve the Siege of La Rochelle, is stabbed and killed at Portsmouth on August 23, 1628 by John Felton, a disaffected army officer who had been wounded in the earlier military adventure and believes he had been passed over for promotion by Buckingham.

Felton will be hanged in November; Buckingham is buried in Westminster Abbey, his tomb bearing a Latin inscription translated as: "The Enigma of the World."

Buckingham’s infant son, also named George Villiers, becomes the 2nd duke of Buckingham.