Earl of Lennox

“ He remained in London till 1543, when he returned with the Scots nobles taken prisoners at Solway Moss, residing mostly with the Earl of Glencairn. In 1544 he was employed by the Earl of Lennox in negotiations with Henry VIII relative to the marriage of Lennox to Lady Margaret Douglas, the king of England's niece. ”

“ The murder of Lord Darnley, now created earl of Rosse, lord of Ardmanoch and duke of Albany, took place in February 1567, and in July his only son James, by Mary’s abdication, became king of Scotland. The old earl of Lennox, now grandfather of his sovereign, obtained the regency in 1570, but in the next year was killed in the attack made on the parliament at Stirling, being the third earl in succession to meet with a violent death. ”

“ The Lennox dukedom, being to heirs male, now devolved upon Charles II., who bestowed it with the titles of earl of Darnley and Lord Tarbolton upon one of his bastards, Charles Lennox, son of the celebrated duchess of Portsmouth, he having previously been created duke of Richmond, earl of March and Lord Settrington in the peerage of England. The ancient lands of the Lennox title were also granted to him, but these he sold to the duke of Montrose. ”

“ Mr. Lennox was in high feather at his good fortune, and most assiduous in his attention to the Ladies de Vere, perhaps as much as the Earl was to Ellen, whom he had taken down to dinner. After the ladies and Johnny left, the gentlemen drew nearer the fire and began to make themselves comfortable. Mr. Lennox introduced the subject of the new clergyman at St. John's, which was in the Earl's gift, and asked if it was his lordship's intention to give the incumbency to Mr. Power, then doing duty. ”

“ Lennox and another rising favourite, James Stewart, together worked for the hated Morton’s95 fall, and as the King was completely in their hands and bore no love to the stern ex-regent, the Earl was condemned to death in 1581, for being “art and part” in the murder of Darnley. Yet not much more than a year after Morton’s death, Lennox’s ascendency came to an end. A number of nobles—Mar, Gowrie, Lindsay and others—seized the King at Ruthven Castle, near Perth, and virtually held him a prisoner, while Lennox was ordered to leave the country—a step which at last he reluctantly took. ”

“ He also gave directions that while his body was to be buried at Aubigny, his heart should be embalmed and sent to the king of Scots, to whose care he commended his children. An anonymous portrait of Lennox belonged in 1866 to the Earl of Home (Cat. First Loan Exhib. No. 459) . By his wife, Catherine de Balsac d'Entragues, Lennox had two sons and three daughters: Ludovick, second duke [q. v.] ; Esmé, third duke; Henrietta, married to George, first marquis of Huntly; Mary, married to John, earl of Mar ”

“ By Lady Margaret Douglas, Lennox had four sons and four daughters; but of these only two sons survived infancy: Henry, lord Darnley [q. v.] , and Charles, who, the earldom of Lennox being on the death of the regent vested in James VI, succeeded to the lordship of Darnley with all the family estates and heritable jurisdictions. He married, in 1574, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Cavendish [q. v.] (and sister of William, first earl of Devonshire) , by whom he had an only daughter, Lady Arabella Stuart [see Arabella] ”

“ LENNOX, CHARLES, second Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny (1701–1750) , only son of Charles Lennox, first duke [q. v.] , and grandson of Charles II, was born in London on 18 May 1701 (Wood, ii. 105) . He entered the army and was made captain in the royal regiment of horseguards 5 Sept. 1722. In 1722, during the lifetime of his father, when his style was Earl of March, he was elected M.P. for both Chichester and Newport (1722–3) , but sat for the former place (Returns of Members of Parliament, ii. 55, 56) . ”

“ It has been also seen, that the hasty collation, made by the nobles at Hampton Court, of these pretended letters, [Pg 314] with others, “long since heretofore written” and furnished by Elizabeth herself, is, in truth, no collation at all, or one upon which no dependence be placed. Fourth, “The Earl of Lennox, both in public, and in a private letter he wrote to his own wife, so expressed himself, that it is plain he not only thought the Queen guilty, but believed the authenticity of her letters to Bothwell.” ”

“ On the one side, he earnestly desired to have the castle; yet, on the other, he did not so much prize it, as for its sake to disoblige the Earl of Lennox, who had been his fast and almost his only friend in all his calamities. ”

“ Heat cures heat! Hair of the dog good for the bite."
Mr. Lennox, accompanied by his dashing companion, then walked on to the Towers, devoutly wishing he had never met him, and anathematizing himself for walking, as he felt he should cut a poor figure with his boy and baggage; and the old rhyme came into his head—
"Them what is rich, them rides in chaises,
Them what is poor, them walks like blazes."
He had hoped to have slipped in unobserved; but had the misluck to meet the Earl and a bevy of visitors at the door; amongst them was Johnny.
"Ah! how do you do, Lennox?" said the Earl. ”

“ Whether the house leased to the Earl of March was one of the two (the other being The Greyhound) purchased by Short in 1590, or a house quite recently built, there is no evidence to show.
The Earl, in February, 1623–4, succeeded to the dukedom of Lennox, and on 30th July of the same year he died. His widow [495] continued to reside at the house. Letters from her, headed “Drury Lane,” and 102dating from 1625 to 1629, are extant, [496] and she also, in 1628, joined with other “inhabitants adjoining the house of the Countess of Castlehaven, in Drury Lane,” in a petition to the Privy Council. ”

“ On 17 July 1484 Darnley was appointed keeper of Bute for seven years (ib.) , and on 20 Oct. 1488—both James III and Lord Avandale having meanwhile passed away—he was appointed, as Earl of Lennox, keeper of the castle of Dumbarton (Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 1424–1513, No. 1794) , and he also sat as Earl of Lennox in parliament. But his succession was not the consequence either of a new creation or of a legal decision in his favour as against Sir John Haldane ”

“ That the poet joined the Lennox faction at court, and during the next ten years was first a "familiar servitour" and afterward a pensioner of the King, is established by evidence drawn both from his writings and from documents of the period. On March 5, 1579-1580, d'Aubigny was made Earl of Lennox, and soon after acquired the large revenues of the Bishopric of Glasgow. Robert Montgomerie, a kinsman of the poet, [8] was appointed "tulchan" archbishop, as the means by which the money might reach Lennox. ”

“ Her position for some years was most equivocal, since, in spite of her close relationship to the queen dowager of Scotland, she could not present to this lady, her sister-in-law, her husband Earl Lennox, traitor to Scotland, or her sons, in whom the Tudor blood was tainted by that of Lennox. She lived, however, in stately fashion in Yorkshire, followed eagerly the ritual of the Romish Church, and educated her children in it. ”

“ The opposing fronts under Angus and Lennox extended on both sides of the Avon. The Earl of Lennox was slain by Sir James Hamilton after quarter had been granted to the former. His sword was afterwards found, and may still be seen in the small museum at Linlithgow. In this village Stephen Mitchell, tobacco and snuff manufacturer, carried on business and had an old snuff mill here; he was the first founder in Great Britain of a Free Library. Burns the Scottish poet stayed a night here on August 25th, 1787.
We arrived at the royal and ancient burgh of Linlithgow at about nine o'clock. ”

“ On the same day the earldom of Lennox was given to Esme Stewart, first cousin of the king and grandson of the 3rd earl, he being son of John Stewart (adopted heir of the maréchal d’Aubigny) and his French wife, Anne de la Queulle. In the following year Esme was created duke of Lennox, earl of Darnley, Lord Aubigny, Tarboulton and Dalkeith, and other favours were heaped upon him, but the earl of Ruthven sent him back to France where he died soon after. ”

“ Lennox was succeeded in the regency by the earl of Mar, a nobleman of great moderation, who, during the short time that he held that office, exerted himself to restore peace to the kingdom, and brought the negotiations for this purpose very near to a successful termination.
During these transactions the courtiers were devising a scheme for securing to themselves the principal part of the ecclesiastical revenues, which led to an alteration of the polity of the church. ”

“ Mutually pleased, they separated for their different apartments, bestowing their praises on the accommodation, Mr. Lennox to dream of the Earl's reception of him and his children, William of the fair Giulia with whom he had lost his heart, Caroline of brigands, and the Count, as he called himself, not to dream, but to think what a gull he had got hold of in Mr. Lennox! Count Cesare was in fact only a member of the Vardarelli's band, who had thus gleaned all the information he wanted for Luigi, and left two of his men to act the part of guardians. ”

“ Mary was induced to favour the family, her near relatives. She corresponded with the Countess of Lennox, and invited Lennox to return to Scotland, and reversed his attainder. He did not recover the patrimony of Angus, his father, for that was in possession of the powerful Earl of Morton, Chancellor of the kingdom, but Mary promised to make that up to him by other means. Once restored to favour and rank in Scotland, Lennox pushed on the scheme of marrying his son Darnley to the queen. ”

“ The Regent Lennox, the King's grandfather, was killed under the very rocks of the castle where James learned his lessons. His young companion's father, the Earl of Mar, was taken from the family at Stirling and raised to a brief and agitated Regency, through all of which a civil war was raging. ”

“ Moray’s version of the letter made Mary tell Bothwell to poison or put away his wife. No such matters occur in Letter II.; Moray spoke, he said, on the authority of “a man who had read the letter.” A similar account of this letter is given in a document of Darnley’s father, the earl of Lennox (Cambridge University Library MSS. Oo. 7. 47; f. 17 b.) . Can we suppose that “the man who had read the letter” invented much of its contents, and told them to Moray, who told de Silva, and told Darnley’s father, Lennox, then in or near London? ”

“ The marginal note is ‘This is written of the Lord of Boyn, who was alleged to be the first lover of the Earl of Bothwell’s wife.’ [240] We must remember that Lennox was preparing a formal indictment, when he reported the same Letter as Moray talked of to de Silva; and that, when the Casket Letters were produced, his discrepancies from Letter II. might perhaps be noticed even in an uncritical age. ”

“ The stout old Earl, when he was got loose (he had been imprisoned) , hearing that the great favourite, Buckingham, was drawn about with a coach and six horses (which was wondered at then as a novelty, and imputed to him as a mastering pride) , thought, if Buckingham had six, he might very well have eight in his coach; with which he rode through the city of London to Bath, to the vulgar talk and admiration; and, recovering his health there, he lived long after at Petworth in Sussex; bating this over-topping humour, which shewed it rather an affected fit than a distemper. ”

“ As his name argued, he was descended from a good stock, but his family had gradually sunk in the scale of life till he was glad to accept a situation in His Majesty's Revenue Office at Edinburgh. Mr. Lennox was certainly gifted in his personal appearance, but this was in a way much lessened by his intolerable conceit. It is not often that we find big men consequential, but Mr. Lennox was the "exceptio regulam probat." He was conceited of himself, and his height, and looks. He was conceited of his name, being distantly connected with the Duke of Richmond. ”

“ In 1320 he signed the letter to Pope John XXII asserting the ecclesiastical independence of Scotland. By the king's command in 1329 Lennox was excused from paying the tenth penny, and a present of wheat was made to his wife. Lennox died fighting bravely at the battle of Halidon Hill on 19 July 1333. ”

“ Still with all his foibles he was gentlemanly, and had long been a friend of the Ravensworths; he liked, too, to have an occasional tête-à-tête with the fair Ellen, whom he fancied as much pleased by his assiduous court, as he was by her lightest smile. Mr. Lennox was a great man in his county, being a Justice of the Peace, and remarkable for his rigorous sentences; for, being strictly moral himself, he had no pity on the erring. He was a great man in his village, the author and finisher of all improvements, the chairman of every public meeting ”

“ That, on the approach of the English army, they would unite with it with all the force which they could raise, and accept and obey the King as director and protector of the realm.
If the earls observed these conditions, Henry undertook that their lands should not be injured in the invasion, that Grlencairn should have a pension of a thousand crowns, and Lennox should have the regency, under conditions of general obedience to advice from England. If the Queen died, the claim of Lennox to the succession should be recognized in preference to that of Arran ”

“ It was a dangerous game to play, for it meant conspiracy; and so long as the Lennoxes and their effeminate, lanky son were basking in Elizabeth's favour, the English queen held her trump card. But Lady Lennox was intriguing and ambitious, the head of English Catholic disaffection, and could only be held to Elizabeth's side by delusive hopes of the English succession for her son. ”