Stewart of Darnley

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Stewart of Darnley, also known as the Lennox Stewarts, were a notable Scots family, a branch of the Clan Stewart, who provided the English Stuart monarchs with their male-line Stuart descent, after the reunion of their branch with the royal Scottish branch.

In 1565 the Darnley branch was re-united with the Royal House of Stewart when Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married his half-first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots. Despite what their common surname suggests, they were not related closely by virtue of both being Stewarts — being only ninth cousins once removed in the male line. It was rather through their shared grandmother, Margaret Tudor (daughter of King Henry VII of England) that they were related, and which gave both their claims to the English throne. The son of their union James VI of Scots succeeded to the throne of England and the throne of Ireland as James I.

Lord Darnley’s claim to the Scottish throne was also not by virtue of his being a Stewart, rather he derived it through his great grandmother, Elizabeth Hamilton, a granddaughter of James II.

The later English kings and queens of the House of Stuart, from James I and Charles I onwards, were more properly members of the Stewart of Darnley branch, and all drew upon their feudal heritage in Lennox.