After his brother died, the person Charles was closest to was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who was also his father's best friend. The Duke of Buckingham was very powerful and rich, but was not popular with most common people. He took Charles to Spain in the hope of finding him a Spanish princess as a bride, but they had a lot of problems on the journey and could not persuade the Spanish king to give them his daughter as a wife for Charles.