page_title: Favourite
section_title: Decline
hierarchical_section_title: Favourite / Decline
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of russian fieldmarshal Grigory Potemkin (1739-1791)Русский: Г.А. Потемкин-Таврический, (1739—91)
context_page_description: A favourite or favorite 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.
  The term is also sometimes employed by writers who want to avoid terms such as "royal mistress", "friend", "companion", or "lover". Several favourites had sexual relations with the monarch, but the feelings of the monarch for the favourite ran the gamut from a simple faith in the favourite's abilities to various degrees of emotional affection and dependence, and sometimes even encompassed sexual infatuation.
context_section_description: In England, the scope for giving political power to a favourite was reduced by the growing importance of Parliament. After the "mushroom" Buckingham was assassinated by John Felton in 1628, Charles I turned to Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who had been a leader of Parliamentary opposition to Buckingham and the King, but had become his supporter after Charles made concessions. Strafford can therefore hardly be called a favourite in the usual sense even though his relationship with Charles became very close. He was also from a well-established family, with powerful relations. After several years in power, Strafford was impeached by a Parliament now very hostile to him. When that process failed, it passed a bill of attainder for his execution without trial, and it put enough pressure on Charles that to his subsequent regret, Charles signed it, and Strafford was executed in 1641. There were later minister-favourites in England, but they knew that the favour of the monarch alone was not sufficient to rule, and most also had careers in Parliament.
  In France, the movement was in the opposite direction. On the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661, the 23-year-old Louis XIV determined that he would rule himself, and he did not allow the delegation of power to ministers that had marked the previous 40 years. The absolute monarchy pioneered by Cardinal Richelieu, Mazarin's predecessor, was to be led by the monarch himself. Louis had many powerful ministers, notably Jean-Baptiste Colbert, in finances, and François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, the army, but overall direction was never delegated, and no subsequent French minister ever equaled the power of the two cardinals.
  The Spanish Habsburgs were not capable of so much energy, but when Olivares was succeeded by his nephew, Luis Méndez de Haro, the last real valido, the control of government into a single pair of hands had already been weakened.
caption: Prince Grigori Potemkin
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