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
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]
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]
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.
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 bOne 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.