Of neighing coursers and of trumpets shrill : a life of Richard, 1st Lord Dingwall and Earl of Desmond (c.1570-1628)

Richard Preston was one of James VI & I's most enduring favourites, rising from page boy to Captain of the Guard at the Scottish Court.

After the Court's migration to England in 1603, Dingwall outlasted both of James' great favourites, the Earl of Somerset and the Duke of Buckingham but unlike them, he has been unfairly written out of history.

This biography reconstructs Dingwall's colourful and highly ambitious life which ranged from teaching Henry, Prince of Wales, how to wield a sword, making, spending and losing vast amounts of money, gathering armies for foreign invasions to befriending visiting scholars.

He was also equally at home being elevated onto a stage in the boughs of a rising tree, dressed in a suit of green leaves before dancing before the Court and capable of bringing a Whitehall tournament to a halt by arriving as Hannibal on top of a trundling, mock elephant. Sadly for him, as for the Early Stuarts, it did not end well.