The ‘strange and dangerous Poynado’ of Georges Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Weaponry, propaganda, and political identity

Abstract

In 1627, an alleged murder plot involving a dagger targeted Georges Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham during his expedition to the Isle of Ré. In 1628, John Felton, a veteran of that same expedition, killed Buckingham with a dagger. This article examines the failure of Buckingham's branding strategy based on the transformation of real weapons into fictional items. It considers three of Buckingham's political self-fashioning objects: his armour in the Mytens portrait, a dagger and a coranto of news. These are contrasted with their reception in Thomas Heywood's tragicomedy The Royal King and the Loyal Subject, diplomatic relations, and libels.