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Stewart of Darnley, also known as the Lennox Stewarts, was a notable Scots family. They were a branch of the Clan Stewart, who provided the English Stuart monarchs with their male-line Stuart descent, after the reunion of their branch with the royal Scottish branch.
In 1565 the Darnley branch was re-united with the Royal House of Stewart when Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married his half-first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Despite what their common surname suggests, they were not related closely by virtue of both being Stewarts — being only ninth cousins once removed in the male line. It was rather through their shared grandmother, Margaret Tudor (daughter of King Henry VII of England) that they were related, and which gave both their claims to the English throne. The son of their union James VI of Scots succeeded to the throne of England and the throne of Ireland as James I.
Lord Darnley’s claim to the Scottish throne was also not by virtue of his being a Stewart, rather he derived it through his great grandmother, Elizabeth Hamilton, a granddaughter of James II.
The later English kings and queens of the House of Stuart, from James I and Charles I onwards, were more properly members of the Stewart of Darnley branch, and all drew upon their feudal heritage in Lennox.
The Stewarts of Darnley were descended from Sir John Stewart (d. 1298), the second son of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland. Their name is derived from Derneley, a barony in Eastwood parish, Renfrewshire. It was located 1.5 mi (2.4 km) east of Barrhead, present day Darnley, within the city of Glasgow.
In 1356, Robert Stewart, High Steward of Scotland, granted the barony to Sir John Stewart, the eldest son of Sir Alan Stewart of Dreghorn. Like the Royal Stewarts, the Stewarts of Darnley used both the 'Stuart' and the 'Stewart' spelling of their surname.
Sir John Stewart of Darnley (d. 1429) fought in the Hundred Years' War under his namesake and distant cousin John Stewart, 2nd Earl of Buchan, in the army of Charles VII of France. For his services, he was rewarded with the lands of Aubigny-sur-Nère and Concressault, which were given to the second son in the family so they could live in France to strengthen the Auld Alliance.
Notable members of this branch were:
The eldest son of Sir Alan Stewart of Darnley (d. 1439) was John Stewart, Lord Darnley, head of the House of Stewart of Darnley, who was created Earl of Lennox in 1488. He died in 1495 and was succeeded by the following descendants:
In 1580, the head of the House of Stewart, King James VI of Scots, granted the title of Duke of Lennox to Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, a cousin and a member of a French branch of the Royal Stewarts. [1]
The following English members of the House of Stewart of Darnley were styled Earls of Lennox by the English Crown, although the King of Scots, in whose kingdom the earldom of Lennox lay, did not recognize the title:
In 1544 Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox married Margaret Douglas, the granddaughter of Henry VII. Their sons Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, were held by contemporaries to have a credible claim to the throne of England.
Margaret Douglas was the fruit of the 1514 union of Margaret Tudor, Dowager Queen of Scots and elder daughter of Henry VII with Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. Born in England and raised at the court of her uncle Henry VIII, Margaret was Henry's officially recognized heir between the disgrace of Anne Boleyn and the birth of the future Edward VI.
In 1565 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married his cousin Mary Queen of Scots, like him a descendant of Margaret Tudor and Henry VII. [2] Mary's descent from Margaret Tudor's first marriage to James IV of Scots also placed her in line for the English throne, but many argued that Margaret Douglas's claim was superior as Margaret and her sons Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox had been born in England. According to English custom it is desirable that the monarch be naturalized or born in England.
By marrying Darnley, Mary neutralized a dangerous rival claim to the throne of England whilst strengthening that of her own house. In 1603 Mary and Darnley's son, James VI of Scotland, succeeded Elizabeth I as King of England, thereby uniting the crowns of England and Scotland and laying the basis for the future United Kingdom.
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was King of Scotland as the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 29 July 1565 until his murder in 1567. Lord Darnley had one child with Mary, the future James VI of Scotland and I of England. Through his parents, he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones. Less than a year after the birth of his son, Darnley was murdered at Kirk o' Field in 1567. Many contemporary narratives describing his life and death refer to him as simply Lord Darnley, his title as heir apparent to the Earldom of Lennox.
Lady Arbella Stuart was an English noblewoman who was considered a possible successor to Queen Elizabeth I of England. During the reign of King James VI and I, she married William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset, another claimant to the English throne, in secret. King James imprisoned William Seymour and placed her under house arrest. When she and her husband tried to escape England, she was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London, where she died at age 39.
Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox, was the daughter of the Scottish queen dowager Margaret Tudor and her second husband Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus, and thus the granddaughter of King Henry VII of England and the half-sister of King James V. She was the grandmother of King James VI and I.
The House of Stuart, originally spelled Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fitz Alan. The name Stewart and variations had become established as a family name by the time of his grandson Walter Stewart. The first monarch of the Stewart line was Robert II, whose male-line descendants were kings and queens in Scotland from 1371, and of England, Ireland and Great Britain from 1603, until 1714. Mary, Queen of Scots, was brought up in France where she adopted the French spelling of the name Stuart.
Duke of Richmond is a title in the Peerage of England that has been created four times in British history. It has been held by members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families.
Earl of Darnley is a hereditary title that has been created three times, twice in the Peerage of Scotland and once in the Peerage of Ireland.
Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox, of Goodwood House near Chichester in Sussex, was the youngest of the seven illegitimate sons of King Charles II, and was that king's only son by his French-born mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth. He was appointed Hereditary Constable of Inverness Castle.
Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox was a leader of the Catholic nobility in Scotland. He was the paternal grandfather of King James VI of Scotland. He owned Temple Newsam in Yorkshire, England.
The Earl or Mormaer of Lennox was the ruler of the region of the Lennox in western Scotland. It was first created in the 12th century for David of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon and later held by the Stewart dynasty.
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond, Lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman who through their paternal lines was a second cousin of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England. Richmond's Island and Cape Richmond as well as Richmond, Maine, are named after him. His magnificent monument with effigies survives in Westminster Abbey.
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox, 6th Seigneur d'Aubigny of the Château d'Aubigny at Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry, France, was a Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favourite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland. Esmé Stewart was the first cousin of James' father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley. Despite his conversion to Calvinism he was never trusted by the Scots and returned to France where he ended his days. Sir James Melville described him as "of nature upright, just and gentle". He was the first to popularise the firstname Esmé in the British Isles.
Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox, KG, 7th Seigneur d'Aubigny, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman and through their paternal lines was a second cousin of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was a patron of the playwright Ben Jonson who lived in his household for five years.
Charles Stuart, 5th Earl of Lennox, was the fourth son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and Lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret Tudor and granddaughter of King Henry VII of England. His brother was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was the uncle of King James VI and I.
Duke of Aubigny is a title that was created in the Peerage of France in 1684. It was granted by King Louis XIV of France to Louise de Kérouaille, the last mistress of King Charles II of England, and to descend to Charles's illegitimate issue by her, namely to the descendants of Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, 1st Duke of Lennox (1672–1723) of Goodwood House in Sussex. Louis XIV also granted her the Château de la Verrerie, a former secondary seat of the Stewart Seigneurs d'Aubigny, Franco-Scottish cousins of the Stewart monarchs, seated from 1422 to 1672 at the Château d'Aubigny in the parish and manor of Aubigny-sur-Nère in the ancient province of Berry in France.
Bernard Stewart, 3rd Seigneur d'Aubigny was a French soldier, commander of the Garde Écossaise, and diplomat belonging to the Scottish family of Stewart of Darnley.
John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox was a prominent Scottish magnate. He was the son of Matthew Stewart, 2nd Earl of Lennox and Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of James Hamilton, 1st Lord Hamilton and Mary Stewart, Princess of Scotland, daughter of King James II of Scotland.
John Stewart, 1st Earl of Lennox was a Scottish earl. He was known as Lord Darnley and later as the Earl of Lennox.
Lord George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny was an Anglo-Scottish nobleman of French descent and a third cousin of King Charles I of England. He supported that king during the Civil War as a Royalist commander and was killed, aged 24, at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642.
Sir John Stewart of Darnley, 1st Comte d'Évreux, 1st Seigneur de Concressault, 1st Seigneur d'Aubigny was a Scottish nobleman and famous military commander who served as Constable of the Scottish Army in France, supporting the French against the English during the Hundred Years War. He was a fourth cousin of King James I of Scotland, the third monarch of the House of Stewart.
The Château de la Verrerie is a château in Oizon, in the ancient province of Berry in France. It is an historic ancestral seat of a junior branch of the Scottish House of Stewart, known by the territorial title Seigneur d'Aubigny. It is situated about 14 miles south-east of Aubigny-sur-Nère, and the Château d'Aubigny, the original seat of its owners.