to interest himself with the literary pursuits which he loved
better than law and almost as much as power; but he was harassed by
want of what, perhaps, he may have loved most of all, namely money,
and he died in 1626, five years after his fall and condemnation.

Although Buckingham was at the summit of his glory, everything did not
go well with him during the period at which he was scheming to rid his
brother of Lady Purbeck. In 1623 he went to Spain with Prince Charles
to arrange a marriage with the Infanta, a match which he failed to
bring about. In 1626 he was impeached, though unsuccessfully, by the
House of Commons. In 1627 he commanded an expedition to the Isle of
Rhe against the French, on behalf of the Huguenots, and completely
failed in the attempt. In 1628 a new Parliament threw the blame upon
him of all the troubles and drawbacks from which the country was then
suffering; and, in August, the same year, he was murdered by an
assassin less than twelve months after he had succeeded in his
proceedings against Lady Purbeck.

It was not until shortly after the death of Bacon that his rival, Sir
Edward Coke, reached the zenith of his fame as a politician. Only a
few months before the death of Buckingham, Coke framed the celebrated
Petition of Rights, a document which has often been spoken of as the
second _Magna Charta_. He had gained little through his attempt to
bribe Buckingham by giving his daughter and her wealth to Buckingham's
brother, and he was now exasperated against the royal favourite and
that favourite's royal master. "In the House of Commons, Sir Ed.
Coke," says Whitelock in his _Memorials_[81] "named the Duke to be the
cause of all their miseries, and moves to goe to the King, and by word
to acquaint him." Rushworth writes[82] more fully of this speech of
Coke's. "Sir Edward Cook spake freely.... Let us palliate no longer;
if we do, God will not prosper us. I think the Duke of Buckingham is
the cause of all our miseries; and till the King be informed thereof,
we shall never go out with honour, or sit with honour here; that man
is the Grievance of Grievances: let us set down the causes of all our
disasters, and all will reflect upon him." And Coke was as bitter
against the King. A little later Charles I. had issued a warrant for a
certain commission, when, in a conference with the Lords, Coke
moved[83] "That the Warrant may be damned and destroyed."

After the prorogation of Parliament which soon f