Brave, wealthy and supremely generous, this latter-day knight errant threw everything he could into his efforts to recapture the Palatinate for his heroine, risking his life and spending enormous sums in financing a military campaign. After all schemes had come to naught he came to live at Elizabeth’s threadbare court in the Hague, supporting her financially and befriending her talented but unruly family while giving discreet help to the royalists in the Civil War. 

His estates, confiscated by the Commonwealth, were returned at the Restoration, and he busied himself in planning fine houses for Elizabeth’s use on her return to England in 1661. Sadly she died the following year, but Ashdown House in Berkshire still remains as a poignant memorial to Craven’s single-minded devotion. Knight Errant: Lord Craven and the Court of the Winter Queen is a thoroughly researched and very readable account of Lord Craven’s dramatic life. It is a stirring tale of plots, intrigues, family quarrels, court cases – and architecture.