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V I L 
after this disgrace, he advised the calling of a new parlia¬ 
ment ; which, so far from answering his purpose, charged 
him with being the author of all the evils and dangers 
brought upon the king and kingdom, and drew up a re¬ 
monstrance, containing a statement of the grievances of 
which he had been the cause. These proceedings were 
staid by a prorogation, and in the mean while he made an 
effort for recovering the good-will of the country, by fitting 
out an expedition for the relief of the Rochellers, then 
under close siege, in whose fate the zealous Protestants 
felt great interest.- Whilst he was at Portsmouth, preparing 
for this expedition, Felton, who had served under him as a 
lieutenant in the army, moved by discontent and a fanatical 
spirit, gave him a stab, which proved almost instantly mor¬ 
tal, and of which he expired August 23, 1628, having just 
completed his 36th year. 
VILL1ERS (George), second duke of Buckingham, was 
the son of the preceding, and bom A. D. 1627. He and 
his brother Francis received the rudiments of education under 
the same tutors with the king’s own children, and were both 
entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, and afterwards sent 
upon their foreign travels. Upon their return the civil war 
had commenced; and after having been presented to the 
king at Oxford, they engaged in military service under 
prince Rupert and Lord Gerard. Upon this, their estates 
were seized, but restored on account of their nonage. They 
afterwards renewed their travels in France and Italy. In 
1648, when the king was prisoner in the Isle of Wight, 
they returned to England, and joined the earl of Holland, 
who was in arms in Surrey; but in an engagement with 
the parliamentary troops at Nonsuch, lord Francis, who 
fought valiantly, was slain. The duke escaped to St. 
Neot’s, and, surrounded by the enemy, made way with sword 
in hand through the guard, and joined prince Charles in the 
Downs. By adhering to the royal cause, he forfeited his 
estates, which were then amongst the most considerable be¬ 
longing to any English subject. He attended the exiled 
Charles in Scotland, and accompanied him at the fatal 
battle of Worcester, whence his escape was no less extraordi¬ 
nary than that of his master. He afterwards served as a 
volunteer in the French army, and occasionally visited the 
king’s little court in Flanders. When the duke was in¬ 
formed that lord Fairfax had retired from the army and re¬ 
sided on part of his estate, which parliament had allotted to 
him, that he had acted generously with regard to other for¬ 
feitures, and that he had an only daughter, he determined to 
venture into England and try his fortune. He soon gained 
the affection of the daughter, and they were married in ] 657, 
at his lordship’s seat of Nun-Appleton, near York. He was 
seized, however, in 1658, and committed to the Tower, very 
much to the displeasure of his father-in-law. After the death 
of Cromwell, he was allowed to confine himself at Windsor 
Castle, and upon the abdication of Richard he obtained his 
liberty. The Restoration put him in possession of all his 
estates, and he lived in splendour and magnificence,. in¬ 
dulging in a profusion of expence, which was very injurious 
to his fortune, and which was not counterbalanced by the 
posts of a lord of the bed-chamber, lord-lieutenant of York¬ 
shire, and master of the horse, which the king assigned him. 
Reduced to desperate circumstances or inclined to faction 
and intrigue, he was charged, as early as the year 1662, with 
treasonable designs; so that in 1666 it became necessary for 
him to abscond, and a proclamation was issued for appre¬ 
hending him. However, he voluntarily surrendered him¬ 
self, and contrived so to ingratiate himself with Charles, as 
to be restored to his place in the bed-chamber and in the 
council. Always an adversary to lord chancellor Clarendon, 
he used his influence to accelerate his fall. In 1668 he 
joined Sir Orlando Bridgeman and Sir Matthew Hale in the 
laudable scheme of relaxing the severities against the Non¬ 
conformists ; but their plan for this purpose was defeated by the 
House of Commons. Destitute of steady principle, the duke 
was selected, in 1670, to form one of the infamous party 
denominated the Cabal , and he was deputed as ambassador 
to the court of France, in order to dissolve the triple alliance, 
V I L 
concerted by Temple and De Witt; and being a favourite 
with the French king, he concurred in all the measures of 
that court. He was suspected, on account of his profligate 
character, with being accessory to the attempt made upon 
the life of the duke of Ormond, by Blood; and his cowar¬ 
dice was so contemptible, that he tamely bore from the 
duke’s spirited son, lord Ossorv, the imputation of this 
villainy, accompanied with a menace, in the royal presence. 
He was elected, however, in 1671, by court interest, to the 
chancellorship of Cambridge; and in the same year was ex¬ 
hibited his comedy, called the “ Rehearsal,” which is said 
to have been a joint production. The satire levelled against 
Dryden, then made poet laureat, was thought to be just, but 
illiberal ; and it was retorted by the poet in the character of 
the duke, under the name of Zimri, in “ Absalom and 
Achitophel.” 
1672, the duke was sent to France to concert measures for 
the war which was intended to ruin the Dutch common¬ 
wealth. In 1674, the conduct of the Cabal being attacked 
in the House of Commons, a motion was made for his im¬ 
peachment, and he was questioned at the bar of the House. 
The result of this business was, that the Commons voted an 
address for his removal. But as he was directed and re¬ 
strained in his conduct by no kind of principle, he joined 
the opposition to the court with the earl of Shaftesbury. In 
1780, having sold Wallingford-House, he removed to the city, 
and there concurred in the politics of the opposition. Ia 
1680, he published a popular work, containing some just and 
liberal sentiments, entitled “ A short Discourse upon the- 
Reasonableness of Men's having a Religion, or Worship of 
God.” Upon his retirement, in declining health, to his 
manor of Helmsley, in Yorkshire, and whilst he was amusing 
himself with rural sports and company, he wrote a short 
essay, entitled “ A Demonstration of the Deity.” At length, 
in a fox-chace, he caught cold, which brought on a fever, and 
on the third day of his illness he died, in April 1688, in the 
61st year of his age. His amours were numerous; and of 
these, the principal was that with the countess of Shrews¬ 
bury, who held his horse while he killed her husband in a 
duel. His writings, consisting of essays, poems, &c. have 
been collected in 2 vols. 8vo. and have passed through four 
editions. He is said to have devoted himself to chemical,, 
or rather alchemical pursuits, in which he was the dupe of 
interested and designing persons; and it is added, that he 
introduced the art of making crystal-glass from Venice. 
Biog. Brit. Hume. 
VILL1ERS, St. Benoit, a small town in the central 
part of France, department of the Yonne, with 900 inha¬ 
bitants ; 20 miles south-west of Joigny. 
V1LLINGEN, a small town of the west of Germany, in 
Baden, situated in the mountainous district of the Black Fo¬ 
rest ; 58 miles south-south-west of Stutgard. Population 3500. 
VILLIVA, Punta de, a cape of Chili, in the province 
of Valdivia ; 80 miles south of Valdivia, in lat. 41. 6. S. 
VILLOISON (J^hn-Baptist Gaspard d’Anse de), was the 
descendant of a family originally Spanish, and born in 1750 
at Corbeille-sur-Seine, and after receiving the rudiments of 
literature at several colleges, attended the Greek lectures of 
M. le Beau at Paris, and enjoyed the higher instruction in this 
department of M. Capperonier, Greek professor in the royal 
college of France. Such were his talents and application,, 
that with these advantages he became acquainted, at the age 
of fifteen, with almost all the writers of antiquity in every 
class. In his researches among MSS. in the library of St, 
Germain-des-Pres, he found a Greek lexicon of Homer by 
Apollonius, which he published in 1773, with prolegomena 
and notes, that displayed a very surprising extent of eru¬ 
dition, considering his early age, and that introduced him, 
out of the usual form, into the Academy of Inscriptions and 
Belles Leltres. His next considerable undertaking was an 
edition of the Pastoral of Longus, which was published in 
1778- In 1781 he obtained a mission, at the king’s ex¬ 
pence, to examine the library of St. Mark in Venice, where 
he found several inedited works of rhetoricians, philosophers* 
and grammarians, a collection of which he published in two 
vols 
