Marriage of George Villiers (2nd Duke of Buckingham) and Mary Fairfax
All Saints', Bolton Percy, on Tuesday September 15th 1657
The Church of All Saint’s Bolton Percy was beautifully presented on Tuesday 15th September 1657 for the marriage of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Mary Fairfax, daughter of Thomas Lord Fairfax of Nun Appleton.
The couple were married in the presence of both families with many villagers and well-wishers assembled outside the Churchyard. Henry Fairfax, rector of All Saints at that time and Mary’s great uncle, was priest in charge of the wedding service.
Extract from All Saints' marriage register
But when news of the wedding reached London, Oliver Cromwell was furious and suspicious that Villiers might be secretly working with royalists to undermine him. Cromwell saw the marriage as a potentially treasonous alliance with the power to turn the army against him. Villiers was subsequently arrested and held at York House, from where he escaped. Re-arrested, he was then imprisoned in the Tower of London.