Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was an English nobleman who was the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the father of James VI of Scotland and I of England. Through his parents, he had claims to both the Scottish and English thrones, and from his marriage in 1565 he was king consort of Scotland. 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 Lord Darnley, his title as heir apparent to the Earldom of Lennox, and it is by this appellation that he is known in history.
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. In her youth she was high in the favour of her uncle, Henry VIII of England, but twice incurred the King's anger, first for her unauthorised engagement to Lord Thomas Howard, who died in the Tower of London in 1537 because of his misalliance with her, and again in 1540 for an affair with Thomas Howard's nephew Sir Charles Howard, the brother of Henry's wife Catherine Howard. On 6 July 1544, she married Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox, one of Scotland's leading noblemen. Her son Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, married Mary, Queen of Scots, and was the father of James VI and I.
The House of Stuart, originally spelt 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 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.
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 and I of England. He owned Temple Newsam in Yorkshire, England.
The Earl or Mormaer of Lennox was the ruler of the district of the Lennox in western Scotland.
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.
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox KG of Cobham Hall in Kent and of Richmond House in Whitehall, London, 11th Seigneur d'Aubigny in France, was an English nobleman of Franco-Scottish ancestry and a 4th cousin of King Charles II of England, both being descended in the male line from John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Lennox.
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 Roman 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, of whose father, Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, he was a first cousin. 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, 1st Earl of Lennox, was the fourth son of Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox and Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret Tudor and granddaughter of King Henry VII of England. His brother was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
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.
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 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.
Bonkyll Castle was a medieval fortress situated in the historic Scottish county of Berwickshire, from 1973 the Scottish Borders. It is situated 4 miles north of Duns and 4 miles south of Grantshouse. Few traces survive and the site is protected as a scheduled monument. It was the seat of a junior branch of the Stewart family, known as "Stewart of Bonkyl", from which was descended in another junior branch "Stewart of Darnley", the paternal family of King James I & VI of Scotland and England.
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.
