Favourite
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A favourite was the intimate companion of a ruler or other important person. In post-classical and early-modern Europe, among other times and places, the term was used of individuals delegated significant political power by a ruler. It was especially a phenomenon of the 16th and 17th centuries, when government had become too complex for many hereditary rulers with no great interest in or talent for it, and political institutions were still evolving. From 1600 to 1660 there were particular successions of all-powerful minister-favourites in much of Europe, particularly in Spain, England, France and Sweden.
Equestrian portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares by Diego Velázquez.
The Duke of Buckingham by the workshop of Rubens
Cardinal Richelieu, one of the most successful from the golden age of the favourite
Prince Grigory Potemkin
Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall
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Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall was an English nobleman of Gascon origin, and the favourite of Edward II of England.
15th-century representation of Gaveston lying dead at the feet of Guy de Beauchamp
Initial from the charter granting Gaveston the earldom of Cornwall, showing the arms of England at top, and Gaveston's coat of arms impaled with those of de Clare below.
View of Warwick Castle from St Mary's Church
Gaveston's Head Shown to the Earl of Lancaster, from a popular history book of 1868