1625 Oil on canvas, 63 x 48 cm Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence George Villiers, the 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), was a royal favourite and statesman who virtually ruled England during the last years of King James I and the first years of the reign of Charles I. Buckingham was extremely unpopular, and the failure of his aggressive, erratic foreign policy increased the tensions that eventually exploded in the Civil War between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. Artist:RUBENS, Pieter Pauwel Title: The Duke of Buckingham, 1601-1650, Flemish , painting , portrait |