Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond

Richard Preston
Earl of Desmond
Tenure1619–1628
Died(1628-10-28)28 October 1628
SpouseElizabeth Butler
Issue
Detail		Elizabeth
FatherRichard Preston of Whitehill

Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond (died 1628) was a favourite of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. In 1609 the king made him Lord Dingwall. In 1614, he married Elizabeth Butler, the only child of Black Tom, the 10th Earl of Ormond, and in 1619 he was created Earl of Desmond.

Background and early life

Richard was the third son of Richard Preston of Whitehill in Midlothian, near Edinburgh. His family was gentry of the Edinburgh area and owned Craigmillar Castle in the late 16th and early 17th century. He was known as Richard Preston of Haltree.

Royal favourite

Richard Preston joined James VI in his marriage trip to Norway and Denmark in 1589.[1] He is recorded a page at the court from 1591.[2] King James had a series of personal relationships with male courtiers, called his favourites, suspected to have been the king's homosexual partners. Esmé Stewart, whom he made Earl and Duke of Lennox, seems to have been the first. After the Raid of Ruthven in 1582, the King was forced to exile Lord Lennox to France.[3]

Richard Preston gained the king's special favour in the 1580s or 1590s after Lennox's departure. He taught military skills to Prince Henry.[4] When King James acceded to the English throne in 1603, Preston accompanied him to England and was knighted at the King's coronation in London on 25 July 1603 in the old elaborate ceremony that included the bathing of the new knight.[5] He then was made a groom of the privy chamber.[6] In 1607, Preston was appointed constable of Dingwall Castle in Scotland. He bought the barony of Dingwall and on 8 June 1609 the King created him Lord Dingwall.[7] In London the King met in 1608 Robert Carr who became his favourite and seems to have supplanted Lord Dingwall, as he was now, in that role.

Masques and tournament pageants

On 6 January 1607, Preston was a performer as a Knight of Apollo in Lord Hay's Masque at Whitehall Palace, part of the celebrations at the wedding of Sir James Hay and Honora Denny. The nine knights were released from enchanted trees by the goddess of night.[8]

In 1609, Preston attended the Accession day tournament, and presented a pageant of an artificial elephant, designed by Inigo Jones, which made its way slowly around the tiltyard.[9][10] When Prince Henry was made Prince of Wales, a Scottish lord, either Preston or Lord Hay, presented a pageant on 6 June 1610, where "verie costlie apparelled" courtiers arrived in an artificial cloud.[11] The cloud showered the spectators with water.[12]

A tournament of tilting was held on New Year's Day 1614, to celebrate the wedding of Robert Carr and Frances Howard. The bride's team wore "murrey" and white and the groom's team were in green and yellow.[13] Preston rode in murrey in the team of Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox (the son of Esmé Stewart), with the professionals Sigismund Zinzan and Henry Zinzan.[14]

Military plans

In February 1612, at the request of a Danish ambassador Jonas Charisius, there were plans to raise an army under Robert Bertie, 12th Baron Willoughby and Sir Edward Cecil to fight against Sweden in the Kalmar War. Preston would command a regiment of Scottish troops and Irish troops would be led by the Earl of Clanrickard. It was said that the ambassador's cause was advocated by Anne of Denmark and, as the conditions offered were poor, he would have to press men and mariners. Willoughby sold land to raise funds.[15] Willoughby's force went to Denmark but arrived after a truce was arranged by James Spens and Robert Anstruther.[16]

Marriage and child

In 1614, King James arranged for Lord Dingwall to marry an heiress, Lady Elizabeth Butler, only daughter of the Thomas Butler and widow of Theobald Butler, 1st Viscount Butler of Tulleophelim,[2]

The King imposed this marriage on Elizabeth's father. The Earl of Ormond did not want the royal favourite for a son-in-law but could not oppose the King's will.[17] Black Tom died soon after the marriage on 22 November 1614.[18]

Richard and Elizabeth had an only child:

Later life and death

On 19 July 1619 Lord Dingwall was created Earl of Desmond.[20] The Earldom of Desmond had originally been held by the Hiberno-Norman FitzGerald dynasty who were stripped of the title after the failure of the Second Desmond Rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I of England. After Richard Preston's death, the title again became extinct but, under the terms of letter patent issued by James I in 1622, it was immediately re-created for George Feilding (son of the Earl of Denbigh) who was intended to marry Preston's daughter.

Alfred Webb tells us of this creation of the earldom of Desmond that:

Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, in right of his mother, Joan FitzGerald, daughter of the 11th Earl of Desmond, claimed the Earldom after the death and attainder of all the heirs male. When his daughter was married to James I.'s Scotch favourite, Sir Richard Preston, the title was conferred on him. When the only child of the latter, a daughter, was about to be married to the son of the Earl of Denbigh, the title was passed to the intended bridegroom. The marriage never took place; yet the title was retained [by] the Earls of Denbigh.[21]

On 26 May 1623, King James I made the young James Butler, the future Duke of Ormond, a ward of Lord Desmond, and placed James at Lambeth, London, under the care of George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury to be brought up as a Protestant.[22]

His wife, Elizabeth Butler died on 10 October 1628 in Wales.[23] On 28 October 1628 Lord Desmond was drowned on a passage between Dublin and Holyhead.[24][25]

Timeline
As his birth date is uncertain, so are all his ages.
Age Date Event
0 1580, estimate Born, near Edinburgh
10–11 1591 Page at the court in Edinburgh.
22–23 1603, 24 Mar Accession of King James I, succeeding Queen Elizabeth I[26]
26–27 1607 Made constable of Dingwall Castle.
28–29 1609, 8 Jun Became Lord Dingwall.[27]
33–34 1614 Married Elizabeth Butler.
33–34 1614, 22 Nov Father-in-law, Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, died at Carrick.
34–35 1615, 25 Jul Daughter born.
38–39 1619, 16 Jul Became Earl of Desmond[20]
44–45 1625, 27 Mar Accession of King Charles I, succeeding King James I[28]
47–48 1628, 10 Oct Wife died in Wales.[23]
47–48 1628, 28 Oct Drowned on a passage between Dublin and Holyhead[24]
Family tree
Richard Preston with wife, parents, and other selected relatives.[29]
James
10th Earl
d. 1529
James
9th Earl
1496–1546		Joan
FitzGerald
d. 1565
Thomas
10th Earl
c. 1531
– 1614
Black Tom		Elizabeth
Sheffield		John of
Kilcash
d. 1570		Katherine
MacCarthy
Theobald
Viscount
Tulleophelim
d. 1613		Elizabeth
Butler
c. 1585
– 1628		Richard
Preston
1st Earl
Desmond
d. 1628		Walter
11th Earl
1559 – 1633
'Beads'		Helen
Butler
d. 1631
Thomas
Viscount
Thurles
d. 1619
d.v.p.*		Elizabeth
Pointz
1587–1673
Elizabeth
Preston
1615–1684		James
1st Duke
1610–1688		Richard
of
Kilcash
1615–1701
Thomas
6th Earl
Ossory
1633–1680
d.v.p.*		Emilia
von
Nassau
1635–1688		Richard
1st Earl
Arran
1639–1684		Elizabeth
Countess
of
Chesterfield
1640–1665		Walter
of
Garryricken
d. 1700
Legend
XXXRichard
Preston		XXXEarls & dukes of
Ormond		XXXEarls of
Desmond
*d.v.p. = predeceased his father (decessit vita patris).

References

  1. ^ Miles Kerr-Peterson and Michael Pearce, "James VI's English Subsidy and Danish Dowry Accounts", Miscellany of the Scottish History Society, XVI (Woodbridge, 2020), p. 51.
  2. ^ a b Paul 1906, p. 121.
  3. ^ Paul 1906, p. 356.
  4. ^ Sarah Fraser, The prince who would be king: the life and death of Henry Stuart (William Collins, 2017), pp. 31–32.
  5. ^ Cokayne 1890, p. 128.
  6. ^ Crawfurd 1716, p. 92.
  7. ^ Paul 1906, p. 121.
  8. ^ David Lindley, Court Masques (Oxford, 1995), p. 21–22, 28–29.
  9. ^ Butler 2008, p. 172.
  10. ^ Birch & Williams 1848, p. 92.
  11. ^ Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, British Drama: 1609-1616 (Oxford, 2012), pp. 78–79.
  12. ^ HMC Manuscripts in various collections, 3 (London, 1904), p. 264.
  13. ^ Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), p. 498.
  14. ^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First, 2 (London, 1828), p. 729.
  15. ^ Norman Egbert McClure, Letters of John Chamberlain, vol. 1 (Philadelphia, 1939), pp. 337, 339, 342.
  16. ^ Steve Murdoch, The Terror of the Seas: Scottish Maritime Warfare 1513-1713 (Brill, 2010), pp. 145–146.
  17. ^ Carte 1851, p. cxv.
  18. ^ Cokayne 1895, p. 148.
  19. ^ Cokayne 1895, p. 150.
  20. ^ a b Paul 1906, p. 122, line 2. "By the influence of the Duke of Buckingham Lord Dingwall was, on the 19 July 1619, created Baron Dumore County Kilkenny and Earl of Desmond in the peerage of Ireland."
  21. ^ Webb 1878, p. 146, left column, line 15.
  22. ^ Lodge 1789, p. 43, line 28. "He was granted in Ward 26 May 1623 to Richard, Earl of Desmond, and by order of K. James I educated under the eye of Doctor George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury ..."
  23. ^ a b Paul 1906, p. 122, line 15. "Lord Dingwall's wife, Elizabeth Butler, died in Wales 10 October 1628 ..."
  24. ^ a b Cokayne 1890, p. 89, line 29. "... he [Richard Preston] died s.p.m. 28 Oct. 1628 ..."
  25. ^ Paul 1906, p. 122.
  26. ^ Fryde et al. 1986, p. 44, line 1.
  27. ^ Paul 1906, p. 121, line 27.
  28. ^ Fryde et al. 1986, p. 44.
  29. ^ This family tree is partly derived from the condensed Butler family tree pictured in Dunboyne, pp. 16–17. Also see the mention of his daughter in the text.

Sources

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