John Felton

{{Infobox criminal | image_name =P139 FELTON IN PRISON.jpg | image_caption =Felton in Prison, illustration from 'Cassell's illustrated history of England (1865) | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = possibly Suffolk, Kingdom of England | death_date = | death_place = Tyburn, London, Kingdom of England | conviction = Assassination of the Duke of Buckingham | charge = Murder | conviction_penalty = Death by hanging | conviction_status = Executed by hanging | motive = | occupation = Soldier | spouse = | parents = | children = | module = }} John Felton ( – 29 November 1628) was a lieutenant in the English Army who stabbed George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, to death in the Greyhound Pub in Portsmouth on 23 August 1628. King Charles I trusted Buckingham, who made himself rich in the process but proved a failure at foreign and military policy. Charles gave him command of the military expedition against Spain in 1625. It was a total fiasco with many dying from disease and starvation. He led another disastrous military campaign in 1627. Buckingham was hated and the damage to the king's reputation was irreparable. Buckingham's assassination by Felton was widely celebrated by members of the public in England, even after his execution. Early life John Felton was born around 1595, possibly in Suffolk, to a family related to the Feltons of Playford in Suffolk and distantly related to Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel. His father, Thomas Felton, prospered as a pursuivant, one appointed to the task of hunting down those who refused to attend Anglican church services. His mother, Elanor, was the daughter of William Wight, the one-time mayor of Durham.