Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos

Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville (1797–1861), only child of the 1st Duke and Duchess.

Richard inherited his father’s and grandfather’s arrogance and took it to new heights. Bawdy in his youth, and lustful throughout his life, he was not a wise manager of his property. In the 1830s, he was known as ‘The Farmer’s Friend’ and opposed the repeal of the corn laws. (See sketch by James Grant.) But he did not seem to take account of his falling income after the repeal. Instead, he borrowed expensively to purchase land but the rents were inadequate to cover the loans, adding to the growing financial crisis. He spent lavishly on the visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to Stowe in 1845. In 1848, the bailiffs arrived at Stowe and the sales of property and possessions began. The Times castigated him as:

A man of the highest rank, and of the property not unequal to his rank, who has thrown away all by extravagance and folly, and reduced his honour to the tinsel of a pauper and the baubles of a fool.

He married Lady Mary Campbell in 1819; as in all his many sexual relationships, the marriage appears based on lust rather than love. She divorced him in 1850, after which he focused on publishing family papers.

Age	Year	Date	Event
0	1797	11 February	Birth at Buckingham House, Pall Mall
9	1806	February	School at Penn [Beaconsfield] (HEH STG Correspondence Box 7 (32); letters dated 13/2/1806 to 8/12/1807)
11	1808		Entered Eton as Lord Cobham
<15	1813		At Dunton. There he was taught by Rev Charles James Blomfield, later Bishop of London. He left late in 1813.
16	1813	15 June	Captain of 2nd Bucks regiment of yeomanry
18	1815	25 October	Matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford
21	1818	22 June	Elected MP for Buckinghamshire
21	1818		Illegitimate daughter born in Italy
22	1819	13 May	Married Lady Mary Campbell
22	1819		Elected Mayor of Winchester
24	1822	4 February	Given courtesy title of Marquess of Chandos
35	1832		Introduced into Reform Bill the tenant-at-will clause extending franchise to £50
38	1835		Gazetted as Knight Grand Cross (GCH; for distinguished carriages in the UK or Hanover)
38	1835		Publishes Agricultural Distress; its Cause and Remedy
39	1836		Obtained Select Committee ‘for consideration of the grievances and depressed state of agriculturists.’
40	1837		Publishes The Ballot discussed in a Letter to the Earl of Devon
41	1839	17 January	Becomes 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos on death of his father; elevated to House of Lords.
42	1839	22 September	Colonel of 2nd Bucks regiment of yeomanry
43	1840	30 April	Elected Fellow of Royal Society of Antiquaries
44	1841	3 September	Appointed Lord Privy Seal in Robert Peel’s government
44	1842	January	Retired from government (permanently)
45	1842		D.C.L of Cambridge
45	1842	11 April	Knight of the Garter
45	1842	18 May	Speech at Aylesbury against repeal of corn laws
48	1845	31 December	Speech in Buckinghamshire against repeal of corn laws
49	1846	7 February	Speech in Buckinghamshire against repeal of corn laws
53	1850	19 January	Wife obtains divorce
56	1853		Publishes Memoirs of the Court of England during the Regency
59	1856		Publishes Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third
62	1859		Publishes Memoirs of the Court of George IV
64	1861		Publishes Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of William IV and Victoria
64	1861	29 July	Dies at Great Western Hotel, Paddington
Post -humous	1862		Publishes The Private Diary of Richard, [1st] Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, K.G

A portrait of the second Duke in Hirst.

The Second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos