John Sheffield, 3rd Earl of Mulgrave

His Grace The Duke of Buckingham and Normanby KG PC
Lord President of the Council
In office 13 June 1711 – 23 September 1714
Monarch	Anne George I
Preceded by	The Earl of Rochester
Succeeded by	The Earl of Nottingham
Personal details
Born	8 September 1647
Died	24 February 1721 (aged 73)
Nationality	English
Occupation	poet, politician

John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normandy, KG, PC (7 April 1648 – 24 February 1721) was an English poet and Tory politician of the late Stuart period who served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord President of the Council. He was also known by his original title, Lord Mulgrave.

John Sheffield was the only son of Edmund Sheffield, 2nd Earl of Mulgrave, and succeeded his father as 3rd Earl and 5th Baron Sheffield in 1658.

At the age of eighteen he joined the fleet, to serve in the Second Anglo-Dutch War; on the renewal of hostilities in 1672 he was present at the Battle of Sole Bay, and in the next year received the command of a ship. He was also made a colonel of infantry, and served for some time under Turenne. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1674. In 1680 he was put in charge of an expedition sent to relieve the town of Tangier. It was said that he was provided with a rotten ship in the hope that he would not return, but the reason of this abortive plot, if plot there was, is not exactly ascertained. At court he took the side of the Duke of York, and helped to bring about Monmouth's disgrace.

In 1682 he was dismissed from the court, apparently for putting himself forward as a suitor for the Princess Anne (who that year was aged 17 while Sheffield was 35 and himself not yet married), but on the accession of King James II, he received a seat in the Privy Council, and was made Lord Chamberlain. (He later married Catherine, the daughter of the king's mistress, Catherine Sedley). He supported James in his most unpopular measures, and stayed with him in London during the time of his flight. He also protected the Spanish ambassador from the dangerous anger of the mob. He acquiesced, however, in the "Glorious Revolution", and in 1694 was made Marquess of Normandy. In 1696 he refused in company with other Tory peers to sign an agreement to support William as their "rightful and lawful king" against Jacobite attempts, and was consequently dismissed from the privy council. On the accession of Queen Anne, of whom he was a personal favourite, he was appointed Lord Privy Seal and Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and in 1703 was created Duke of Buckingham and Normanby.

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