Hugh Despenser the Younger
Hugh Despenser, 1st Baron Despenser, also referred to as "the Younger Despenser", was the son and heir of Hugh Despenser, Earl of Winchester, and his wife Isabel Beauchamp, daughter of William Beauchamp, 9th Earl of Warwick. He rose to national prominence as royal chamberlain and a favourite of Edward II of England. Despenser made many enemies amongst the nobility of England. After the overthrow of Edward, he was eventually charged with high treason and ultimately hanged, drawn and quartered.
Despenser in the Founders and Benefactors Book of Tewkesbury Abbey, c. 1525; his family arms of Quarterly 1st & 4th: Argent; 2nd & 3rd: Gules fretty or, over all a ribbon sable are at the bottom left
The execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, from a manuscript of Jean Froissart
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