Assassination of Buckingham by Felton

The assassination of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, at Portsmouth on the morning of August 23, 1628, is the climactic act of private vengeance and political intrigue that Milady de Winter engineers through the systematic seduction and religious manipulation of the Puritan officer John Felton. This single stroke removes the most powerful enemy of Cardinal Richelieu, destroys the man who loved Queen Anne of Austria, and simultaneously seals Milady's own doom by completing the chain of crimes for which her judges will soon condemn her. The event transforms the political landscape of the siege of La Rochelle, extinguishes the hope of the besieged city, and marks the point at which Milady's long accumulation of evil finally overreaches itself.

Background and the Architect of Murder

The assassination does not arise from spontaneous fanaticism but from a carefully laid plan devised by Cardinal Richelieu and executed by Milady. During their secret meeting at the inn of the Red Dovecot, the cardinal had outlined to Milady the need for "some woman, handsome, young, and clever, who has cause of quarrel with the duke" to place "the knife of Jacques Clement or of Ravaillac in the hands of a fanatic." Milady immediately recognized herself as that woman and promised to find the instrument. The cardinal's motive was twofold: to eliminate Buckingham as a military and political enemy who threatened France with an English invasion, and to avenge himself on the rival who had won the queen's heart. For Milady, the assassination served her own burning desire for vengeance against Buckingham, whom she accused of having branded her with the fleur-de-lis, and against d'Artagnan and his friends, whom she blamed for her humiliations. The cardinal had provided her with a signed carte blanche, and she had set sail for England with the explicit mission of preventing Buckingham from sailing to aid La Rochelle.

The Seduction of Felton

Milady's true instrument was not hired assassins but the Puritan lieutenant John Felton, whom Lord de Winter had placed as her jailer in his castle. Recognizing Felton's austere Puritan faith and his hatred of Buckingham—whom the Puritans called "Satan" and "the Antichrist"—Milady set about a calculated campaign of seduction that exploited his religious fervor. She feigned a swoon, sang psalms in a voice of "immense power and sublime expression" that made Felton believe he heard "the singing of the angel who consoled the three Hebrews in the furnace," and finally revealed to him a fabricated story of her own victimization. She claimed that Buckingham had drugged, raped, and branded her with the fleur-de-lis, and that Lord de Winter was complicit in this persecution. When Felton saw the brand on her shoulder—the same mark he had been told was the punishment of a criminal—he was overcome. "Pardon! Pardon!" he cried, falling to his knees, and Milady read in his eyes "LOVE! LOVE!" He swore to avenge her, and she gave him the knife with which she had pretended to stab herself, telling him, "Felton, you are as great as Judas Maccabeus!"

The Assassination

On the morning of August 23, Felton, having helped Milady escape from the castle by a rope ladder and placed her on a waiting sloop, rode to Portsmouth. He entered the palace of the Admiralty bearing a letter from Lord de Winter, which gave him access to Buckingham. The duke was finishing his toilet, preparing to put on a blue velvet doublet embroidered with pearls. Felton demanded that Buckingham sign the order for Milady's liberation, but the duke refused, saying, "This lady is infamous." When Buckingham called for his attendant Patrick, Felton drew the knife from his bosom and plunged it into the duke's side up to the handle. "Ah, traitor," cried Buckingham, "you have killed me!" Felton attempted to flee but was seized by Lord de Winter, who had arrived too late by a minute. The duke, dying, asked Laporte, the queen's messenger, to read her letter aloud, and upon hearing that she still loved him, said, "God be praised! My death, then, will not be to her as the death of a stranger!" He then gave Laporte the silver casket containing the queen's letters and the knife, and died.

Consequences and Aftermath

The assassination had immediate and far-reaching consequences. The cannon shot that announced Buckingham's death was heard by Milady on her waiting sloop, and she ordered the anchor weighed an hour and a half early, sailing for France. Felton, when confronted by Lord de Winter, claimed he had killed the duke because Buckingham had twice refused him a captaincy, but his eyes remained fixed on the distant sail of Milady's vessel, and he "grew deadly pale, placed his hand upon his heart, which was breaking, and at once perceived all the treachery." The king of England, Charles I, tried to conceal the news from the Rochellais, closing all ports, but two vessels had already sailed. The siege of La Rochelle, deprived of Buckingham's promised relief, ended in surrender on October 28, 1628. For Milady, the assassination was her last successful act of evil; it completed the chain of crimes that would lead to her own trial and execution on the banks of the Lys. For d'Artagnan and his friends, it was the final proof of her monstrous nature, and they set out to hunt her down, arriving too late to save Constance Bonacieux but in time to bring her to justice.