John Felton, pictured in a report of the Duke’s death, killed Buckingham over a grudge and £80 back pay
On August 23, 1628, George Villiers, The Duke of Buckingham and First Lord of the Admiralty, was enjoying a drink in Ye Spotted Dogge pub in Portsmouth when he was stabbed in the heart by disgruntled naval officer Lieutenant John Felton.
Felton was angry with the Duke, who had led the Royal Navy in some disastrous naval expeditions, after he was wounded in a battle off Ile de Re, near France, a year earlier.
He was also bitter at being passed over for promotion to captain twice and was owed £80 in back pay, with the officer calmly walking up to the Duke before stabbing him and exiting unnoticed during the subsequent chaos.
The Duke was a close friend of King Charles I and his men eventually cornered Felton in the kitchen of the pub, where he surrendered and confessed to the killing.
Felton said he had come to believe the nation was suffering due to the Duke’s ‘corruption’ and thought he was doing the country a service by killing him.
The murder was pre-planned, with Felton writing two apologies for the crime and sewing them into his hat band. In them he wrote he had ‘struck the blow for the public good’ and acted as a ‘patriot, a gentleman and a soldier’
Buckingham’s death shocked the nation and left the King stunned, although others around the country ‘reacted with joy’.
Felton was taken from Portsmouth to the Tower of London under armed guard, and he is believed to have been tortured with investigators convinced there had been a ‘conspiracy’ around the Duke’s death.
By November he was put on trial for murder, convicted and hanged after repenting his crime at the gallows.
After his death his body was taken to Portsmouth and strung up with chains so it would rot and send a message to anyone else with anti-monarchy ideas.