The Scapegoat

The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham

By: Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Narrated by: Lucy Hughes-Hallett

From the winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize, an extraordinary history of the meteoric rise and fall of George Villiers, the first Duke of Buckingham.

As King James I’s favourite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, advisor and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and mentor. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. He became one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic Englishmen at the heart of seventeenth-century royal and political life.

With a novelist’s touch, Lucy Hughes-Hallett transports us into a courtly world of masques and dancing, exquisite clothes, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck, gender-fluidity, same-sex desire, and appallingly rudimentary medicine. Witch hunts coexisted with Descartian rationality and public opinion was becoming a political force. Falling from grace spectacularly, Buckingham came to represent everything that was wrong with the country.

From kidnappings and murder plots to men weeping in Parliament over civil liberties, The Scapegoat navigates love, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change. In this immersive and authoritative account, Hughes-Hallett summons an era that still resonates today.

Perfect

Highly recommended. Enthralling, very human history. Outstanding writing and research. Beautifully read. Sorry it had to end.

Interesting piece of history

I had very little understanding of this time in history being raised in the United States where one doesn’t learn about the English Civil War or events leading up to it. This book gives a good background of how court life was, how poor decisions on the part of those in charge of a nation ruin lives of many. I’m glad I listened to this and hope others do or read it as well. I also purchased a paper copy to see pictures and more easily re-read some sections.