; overall an inescutcheon of Lennox'' . Built by Sir
Robert Stewart, 4th Seigneur d'Aubigny (c. 1470 – 1544) and known to the French today as
le château des Stuarts Ludovic Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Lennox Ludovic Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 2nd Duke of Lennox (1574–1624), was the eldest son and heir of
Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox, 1st Earl of Lennox (1542–1583), a Roman Catholic French nobleman of Scottish ancestry who on his move to Scotland at the age of 37 became a favorite of the 13-year-old King James VI of Scotland (later James I of England), of whose father,
Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, he was a first cousin. In 1579/80 Esmé Stewart was created Earl of Lennox,
Lord Darnley, Aubigny and Dalkeith and in 1581 he was created
Duke of Lennox,
Earl of Darnley,
Lord Aubigny, Dalkeith, Torboltoun and Aberdour. The founder of the French branch of the Stewart family of
Darnley in
Renfrewshire, Scotland, was Sir
John Stewart of Darnley ( – 1429), 1st Seigneur de Concressault, 1st Seigneur d'Aubigny, 1st
Comte d'Évreux, a warrior who commanded the Scottish army in France assisting the French King Charles VII to expel the invading English forces under King Henry V during the
Hundred Years War. He was much appreciated by the French king who showered him with honours and landed estates and granted him the "glorious privilege of quartering the royal arms of France with his paternal arms". He married three times but died on 16 February 1623/4, aged 50, without legitimate issue, when all his titles, excepting those inherited from his father, became extinct. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey, in the
Richmond Vault in the
Henry VII Chapel (that king formerly having been
Earl of Richmond) above which survives his magnificent black marble monument by
Hubert Le Sueur with gilt-bronze recumbent effigies of himself and his wife.
Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox (1579–1624), younger brother and heir, who had succeeded his father as 7th Seigneur d'Aubigny (which French title was able to be passed directly to a younger son). He died on 30 July 1624 of spotted fever, just 5 months after his elder brother. He married
Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton ( – 1637) of Leighton Bromswold, Huntingdonshire, as a consequence of which in 1619 he was created Baron Stuart of Leighton Bromswold and Earl of March. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox (1612–1655), son and heir, a third cousin of King
Charles I. In 1624 King James I created the 12-year-old newly-fatherless James Stewart as
Duke of Richmond and in 1628, following the death of Frances Howard (Lady Cobham), he gained vacant possession of Cobham Hall, which became his main residence. He was a key member of
Royalist party in the
English Civil War and in 1641–42 he served as
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, which office was administered from nearby
Dover Castle in Kent. He married
Mary Villiers, daughter of
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
Esmé Stuart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox Esmé Stuart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox (1649–1660) was the infant son the 1st Duke. On his father's death when he was aged 6, and following the defeat of the royalist faction in the Civil War, he and his mother went into exile in France, where he died of the smallpox aged 10 in 1660 (the year of the
Restoration of the Monarchy), when his titles passed to his first cousin
Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey, where survives his monument, a black obelisk surmounted by an urn containing his heart. His "Gilt Hall" of 1672 (with marble wall decorations added in the 18th c. by
James Wyatt) was considered by King George IV to be the finest room in England. He married three times but died childless. ==Family tree==