Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
1546 – 1567 · Generation XXIV · House of Stuart
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley (1546–1567). Married Mary Stuart in 1565. Mary’s cousin and second husband; murdered at Kirk o’ Field within two years of the wedding. Born at Temple Newsam in Yorkshire to the exiled Earl of Lennox and Lady Margaret Douglas, a granddaughter of Henry VII, he carried claims to both the English and Scottish thrones — a double claim that made Elizabeth I view his marriage to Mary with alarm. He joined Mary in Scotland in 1565; she was quickly taken with him, and on the eve of their July wedding at Holyrood proclaimed him king, though she withheld the Crown Matrimonial. The marriage provoked the Chaseabout Raid and landed his mother in the Tower. Vain and prone to drunken violence, he joined Protestant lords in stabbing Mary’s secretary David Rizzio in her presence in 1566, then denied any part in it. Their son James was born that June. Convalescing at Kirk o’ Field, he was found smothered in the orchard after gunpowder wrecked the house; suspicion fell on Bothwell and on Mary herself.
Place in the family
- Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley was a great-nephew of King Henry VIII.
- The archive records 107 of his descendants, across 16 generations.
One of 17 people of House of Stuart (from 1371) in this archive. Scotland’s royal house for three centuries before James VI inherited England and wore both crowns.
Line of descent: Owen Tudor → Edmund Tudor → King Henry VII → Margaret Tudor → Margaret Douglas → Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
Parents
- Matthew Stewart (1516 – 1571)
- Margaret Douglas (1515 – 1578)
Partners
- Married Mary Queen of Scots (1542 – 1587) in 1565 — one child together
Children
- King James I (1566 – 1625)
Life
- 1546 — Born
- 1565 — Married Mary Stuart
- 1567 — Died