Scottish nobleman
Arms of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox: Quarterly of 4, 1&4: Arms awarded in 1427 by King Charles VII of France to Sir
John Stewart of Darnley , 1st Seigneur d'Aubigny, 1st Seigneur de Concressault and 1st Comte d'Évreux, Constable of the Scottish Army in France:
[1] Royal arms of France within a bordure of Bonkyll, for the arms of the de Bonkyll family of
Bonkyll Castle in Scotland (whose
canting arms were three buckles ),
[2] ancestors of Stewart of Darnley; 2&3: Stewart of Darnley: Arms of
Stewart , Hereditary
High Steward of Scotland , a bordure engrailed gules for
difference ; overall an inescutcheon of Lennox,
Earl of Lennox , the heiress of whom was the wife of Sir
John Stewart of Darnley
Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox (1579 – 30 July 1624),
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.
Origins
He was the younger son of
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (1542–1583), a Frenchman of Scottish ancestry and a favourite of King
James VI of Scotland (of whose father,
Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley , he was a first cousin), by his wife Catherine de Balsac (died after 1630), a daughter of Guillaume de Balsac, Sieur d'Entragues, by his wife Louise d'Humières.
Career
At the death of his childless elder brother,
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1574–1624), he inherited their paternal title of Duke of Lennox, the Dukedom of Richmond having become extinct. He was by then already
Earl of March (in the peerage of England) (1619) and
Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold (in the right of his wife).
[3] He had become the 7th
Seigneur d'Aubigny in France when his elder brother surrendered the title following their father's death.
[4]
[5]
On 9 February 1608, he performed in the masque
The Hue and Cry After Cupid at
Whitehall Palace as a sign of the zodiac, to celebrate the wedding of
John Ramsay, Viscount Haddington to Elizabeth Radclyffe .
[6]
In 1624, the year of his death, he was invested as a
Knight of the Garter .
Marriage and children
In 1609, he married
Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton , by whom he had eleven children, third cousins of King Charles I, for whom many of them fought and died in the
English Civil War :
Sons
Two of the younger sons of the 3rd Duke of Richmond, who together with their elder brother Lord George Stewart, died as young men during the Civil War supporting the Royalist cause, left : Lord John Stewart (1621–1644), died aged 23 and right :
Lord Bernard Stewart (1623–1645), died aged 22.
Lord John Stuart and his Brother, Lord Bernard Stuart , c. 1638, by Sir
Anthony van Dyck ,
National Gallery, London
James Stewart, 4th Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1612–1655), eldest son and heir. He resided at
Cobham Hall in Kent (granted in 1606 to his uncle
Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1574–1624), by his second cousin King James VI & I) and served as
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports , based at
Dover Castle in Kent;
Henry Stewart, 8th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1616–1632). He studied in the City of
Bourges (the capital of the former
province of
Berry , in which was situated Aubigny) and later at Paris, then visited Venice with the statesman
Richard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (father of his sister's husband) where he died at age 17, and was buried in the Church of
Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice ;
[7]
Francis Stewart (1616–1617), died in infancy;
George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1618–1642), killed aged 24 fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War. He married
Katherine Howard (d. 1650), a daughter of
Theophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk , by whom he was the father of
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox (1638–1672), of Cobham Hall and of
Richmond House in London, the last in the male line of the Stewarts of Aubigny, who was the heir of his infant first cousin
Esmé Stuart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox (1649–1660), the son and heir of
James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox (1612–1655), of Cobham Hall;
Ludovic Stewart, 11th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1619–1665), who shortly before his death became a
cardinal ;
[3]
Lord John Stewart (1621–1644) killed aged 23, unmarried, fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War;
Lord Bernard Stewart (1623–1645) killed aged 22, unmarried, fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War. For his war services, he was due to be created
Earl of Lichfield , but died before the formalities were completed, and the title was instead awarded to his nephew
Charles Stewart (1638–1672), later 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox.
Daughters
Death and burial
He died on 30 July 1624 at
Kirby Hall , Northamptonshire, of the "spotted ague".
[8] He was buried, on 6 August 1624, in
Westminster Abbey ,
[9] in the Richmond Vault in the south-east apsidal chapel of the Chapel of King Henry VII
[10] (himself formerly
Earl of Richmond ).
References
^ Cust, Lady Elizabeth, Some Account of the Stuarts of Aubigny, in France , London, 1891, pp.12-14
[1]
^ Johnston, G. Harvey, The Heraldry of the Stewarts , Edinburgh, 1906, p.47
[2]
^
a
b One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain :
Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "
Lennox ".
Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 420.
^ Macpherson, Rob (2004).
"Stuart [Stewart], Ludovick, second duke of Lennox and duke of Richmond" .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/26724 .
ISBN
978-0-19-861412-8 . Retrieved 21 May 2022 . (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
^ Smuts, R. Malcolm (2004).
"Stuart, Esmé, third duke of Lennox (1579?–1624), nobleman" .
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi :
10.1093/ref:odnb/67529 .
ISBN
978-0-19-861412-8 . Retrieved 21 May 2022 . (Subscription or
UK public library membership required.)
^ Edmund Lodge, Illustrations of British History, vol. 3 (London, 1838), p. 223.
^ Gaspard Thaumas de la Thaumassiere, Histoire de Berry , Paris, 1689, p.697
[3]
^ John Nichols, Progresses of James the First , vol. 4 (London, 1828), p. 985.
^
Tudorplace.com
^
"Ludovic, Frances & Esme Stuart" .
[Known] Mormaers/Earls from Lennox line (to 1458) Stewart Earls (1488–1581) Stewart Dukes (1581–1672) ¶ - Not from Lennox line
International National Other