Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham

Edward Stafford, 3rd duke of Buckingham (born Feb. 3, 1478, Brecknock Castle, Brecon, Brecknockshire, Wales—died May 17, 1521, London, Eng.) was the eldest son of Henry Stafford, the 2nd duke, succeeding to the title in 1485, after the attainder had been removed, two years after the execution of his father.

On the accession of Henry VIII Buckingham began to play an important role in political affairs and, as lord high constable, bore the crown at the coronation (June 23, 1509) and in the following November became a privy councillor. As constable and as a descendant of Edward III, he was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, and on at least one occasion, under the previous reign of Henry VII, had been considered a possible successor to the crown. Thus Buckingham was viewed suspiciously by Henry VIII and especially by Henry’s minister Cardinal Wolsey, and he seems to have fueled the suspicion by becoming a spokesman for those nobles excluded from office under the Tudors. At last he was accused, probably falsely, of treasonable practices—of having heeded prophesies of the king’s death and his own accession to the throne and having voiced intentions to kill the king. Henry VIII himself examined witnesses and accusers (spring 1521); and Buckingham was lodged in the Tower of London (April 16), tried the following month, and executed on Tower Hill. He figures in Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII.