My current history course portrays George Villiers as a royal favourite who made it to a high social status by being good-looking and being good at dancing - and it argues that Villiers, through his incompetence and favoritism, was in fact the main cause of the English Civil War.
However, if we take a look at his decisions, a lot of them actually look decently thought-out plans, even in hindsight. Not particularly successful, true - but some of them were quite logical.
For instance, the Spanish Match is often lambasted as a hopeless venture and a waste of money - but given the desperation of the Palatinate at the time, a successful English alliance with the Spanish could theoretically have saved the Palatinate without any use of troops. Given that the English Army and the English Navy were not in particularly pristine condition, the odds of a successful expedition against the Holy Roman Empire wasn't high anyway. In this context, the Spanish Match actually looks like one of England's last and best hopes to keep Frederick as the Elector of the Palatinate.
True, it didn't pay off - but it was a pretty risky gamble that England was forced into. George Villiers didn't really make a bad choice - it was pretty much the only choice he had left, it was a pretty logical (if risky) choice, and it just happened to not pay off.
Villier's reputation for diplomatic incompetence continues from the fact that he lent Cardinal Richelieu ships with which the French used to suppress the Huguenots. At the time, however, it seemed like a good choice, given the limited information that Buckingham had. Richelieu promised to help England with its efforts in the Palatinate, and with the French marriage firmly secured, it looked to be the beginning of an Anglo-French alliance against the Habsburgs. Although lending him a few ships might give France an easier time suppressing its Protestants, the Protestants were unlikely to have succeeded in their rebellion anyway - doing so would only speed up their demise, and in the process England would secure a crucial ally in their war against the Habsburgs. The fact that Buckingham was outmaneuvered by Richelieu says little about Buckingham's incompetence, but a lot more about Richelieu's skill in political maneuvering.
One of the other things that Villiers is accused of, aside from diplomatic incompetence, would be military incompetence - he cost England a series of losses against the French, the Spanish, and a failed land expedition into the Palatinate. But if we look at the reality of those plans, a lot of the plans were actually quite decent, and were foiled by either a lack of funding, poor luck, or a poorly trained and unprepared troops.
The Cadiz expedition, for instance, was foiled by bad weather - a storm had delayed the English fleet from successfully capturing the Spanish treasure galleons as originally planned. The storm also whittled down the supplies of the English fleet, which were already low to begin with due to lack of monetary support from Parliament. When Buckingham landed, his ill-trained troops were already in a mutinous mood and he had very little control over them when they decided to raid the Spanish storehouses - nor could he have possibly anticipated that they would opt to get black-out drunk right before an engagement with the Spanish. It shows incredibly poor judgement and discipline from his troops, and a lack of support from Parliament, as well as ill luck from the storm - but it doesn't necessarily imply that Buckingham was incompetent.
The same holds true for a lot of the military failures that Buckingham was accused of - and the more I read about his exploits, the more logical they seemed at the time, and the more uncertain I become as to whether Buckingham was grossly incompetent or if he just had really good opponents and really terrible luck.
So... is there something I'm missing about why he was considered incompetent, or does my history course simply choose a lot of sources that were biased against Buckingham?
Thank you for any answers.
Can't speak to all the questions, however, his role in the negotiations for a marriage between Charles and the Infanta of Spain is a particularly famous example of blundering. Spain wanted at least the negotiations for a match as a way to gain some advantage against France. James I wanted the match to both add money to the treasury and restore his son in law Frederick to the Palatinate, recently taken from him the ongoing 30 Years War. In actuality there was almost no hope of it working-Spain would never allow the Infanta to marry a heretic ( the Infanta herself was horrified, ready to become a nun to avoid it) and wanted England to be Catholic, at least grant rights to Catholics. As Catholics had recently tried to blow up parliament, this was not going to happen: any English king who agreed to become Catholic would have been toppled. But both James and Olivares were perfectly duplicitous, believing that prevarication would enable them eventually to get the final advantage. So, talks went on, but went no where.
If negotiations had only continued, with Gondomar ,the Spanish ambassador in London, and Bristol, the English ambassador in Madrid , putting forward proposals and both countries lobbying the Pope, the whole thing might have gradually petered out. Instead, Buckingham had the ludicrous idea that matters would be helped along if he and Charles just went to Spain, without an invitation, announcement, etc. and started to talk directly with Olivares and the King. So, they went. This immediately put England in a very weak position- it implied they were agreeable to a match under any terms, and , perhaps more importantly , put the Crown Prince inside a not-necessarily friendly country that might simply choose to lock him up. Worse, Olivares was much more deft at dealing with people- Buckingham was used to deference, Charles was very naive. They were immediately taken in. An example of this can be seen in a part of a letter they wrote back to James:
" we find the Conde de Olivares so overvaluing our journey, he is so full of real courtesy, that we can do no less than beseech your Majesty to write the kindest letter of thanks and acknowledgment you can unto him. He said, no later to us than this morning, that if the Pope would not give a dispensation for a wife they would give the Infanta to thy Baby as his wench, and hath this day written to Cardinal Ludovico, the Pope's nephew, that the King of England hath put such an obligation upon this King in sending his son hither, that he entreats him to make haste of the dispensation, for he can deny nothing that is in his kingdom.... The Pope's Nuncio works as maliciously and as actively as he can against us, but receives such rude answers that we hope he will soon weary on't. We make this collection that the Pope will be very loth to grant a dispensation, which, if he will not do, then we would gladly have your directions how far we may engage you in the acknowledgment of the Pope's special power, for we almost find, if you will be contented to acknowledge the Pope as chief head under Christ, that the match will be made without him..."
Imagine King James announcing the Pope is again head of the English church! In the end, James found they had agreed to have him swear in front of witnesses that he would grant toleration of Catholics in England , even before the match was agreed to: and actually did it ( though he renounced it later). But Buckingham and Charles' weeks of discussions only created the impression abroad that England was so eager for the match, so desperate, that it would allow Spain to grant nothing in return, certainly not the Palatinate. The two had to almost skulk back home, at last realizing they would get nothing and how much of a mess they'd made of things, beating a hasty retreat before the Spanish might stop talking and simply choose to hold them as hostages for something they'd agreed for England to do.
Although Olivares was a skillful manipulator, it's impossible to avoid concluding that in this matter Buckingham was a conceited fool who didn't know his limitations. Even a talented diplomat would have failed to get a marital agreement, here, but even one with common sense would have known to avoid giving away the store.
The Court of Philip IV Martin A.S. Hume