Lennox

The ancient earldom which bore this name consisted of the whole of Dunbartonshire, as well as large parts of Renfrewshire, Stirlingshire and Perthshire. ‘Leamhanach’ signified in Gaelic a ‘smooth stream’ or perhaps ‘place of the elm trees’. From the ancient Celtic Mormaers of Levenax sprang the Earls of Lennox who were to become joined to the royal house of Stewart. The origins of the earldom, which was well established by the twelfth century, are disputed, but one theory asserts that a Saxon baron by the name of Arkyll received lands in Dunbartonshire and Stirlingshire from Malcolm III, and by his marriage to a Scottish heiress had a son, Alwyn, first Earl of Lennox. However, it is claimed by other historians that the earldom was conferred by William the Lion upon his brother, David, Earl of Huntingdon, and that the family of Lennox was not established until after William’s reign.

By the end of the thirteenth century the Earls of Lennox were among the most powerful nobles in the realm, and Malcolm, the fifth Earl, was one of the nominees supporting the Bruce claim to the crown of Scotland. In 1296 he led his Lennox men into England and besieged Carlisle. He swore fealty to Edward I of England and is listed in the Ragman Roll of that year, but he was also at the forefront of the struggle for Scottish independence and was one of the mainstays of Robert the Bruce. His son was present at the coronation of Robert II at Scone in 1371, although he died only two years later with no direct male issue. The earldom passed through his only daughter to Walter de Fasselane, who assumed the title of Earl of Lennox. Margaret Lennox and her husband resigned the title to the Crown, who regranted it to their son, Duncan, whose elder daughter, Isabella, married Murdoch, Duke of Albany and Regent of Scotland between 1419 and 1425. The connection with Regent Albany was to prove an unhappy one. On the return of James I from his imprisonment in England, Lennox fell victim to the king’s hatred of all those connected with Albany, whose father had murdered the king’s brother and who had presided over the decline of Scotland into disorder. The earl was beheaded in May 1425, although then in his eightieth year. His son-in-law, Albany, was executed, and his daughter, the widowed duchess, was imprisoned at Tantallon Castle in East Lothian with her son, Walter de Levenax, who was later transferred to the Bass Rock, and then to Stirling, where he was executed. The grieving widow and mother was eventually allowed to return to her island residence at Inchmurrin on Loch Lomond. The succession to the title was thereafter disputed, and the lands themselves were divided. The Duchess of Albany’s sisters, Margaret and Elizabeth, both left descendants who claimed the vast estates. From Margaret Lennox descended the Menteiths of Rusky, and from Elizabeth, the Stewarts, later Lords Darnley.

John, Lord Darnley assumed the title of Earl of Lennox in 1488 and sat in the first Parliament of James IV. In 1503, Matthew, the second Stewart Earl of Lennox, obtained from James IV the hereditary sheriffdom of Dunbartonshire, which was made an adjunct of the earldom. In 1513, Matthew, along with the Earl of Argyll, commanded the right wing of the Scots army at Flodden, where he was slain. The younger son of the fourth Stewart Earl was Henry, Lord Darnley, the unfortunate husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Darnley, who became King Henry upon his marriage, was later murdered, an act which was one of the factors leading to his widow’s being deposed, and set in motion the events which led to her execution at Fotheringay Castle. The Earldom of Lennox consequently passed to the young James VI along with the other Darnley estates, which he later granted to his uncle, Charles, his father’s younger brother. When he died without male issue the title was bestowed by the king on Esmé Stuart, the son of John, Lord de Aubigny, a younger son of the third Stewart Earl of Lennox and Governor of Avignon. He was recalled to Scotland by James VI in 1579, and in 1581 he was created Duke of Lennox and High Chamberlain of Scotland. His son, the second Duke, was additionally created Duke of Richmond in 1623. The dukedoms and the estates once more died out in a direct line and devolved on Charles II as the nearest male heir. He conferred the dukedom of Lennox and of Richmond upon Charles Lennox, his illegitimate son by his liaison with Louise de Kerouaille. The present Duke of Richmond, Gordon and Lennox, proprietor of the famous Goodwood Race Course, is Charles Lennox’s direct descendant. In the nineteenth century the Lennoxes of Woodhead, later of Lennox Castle near Glasgow, claimed the right to succeed to the title and honours of the ancient Earls of Lennox, and although their claim to the peerage was never established, they were recognised as chief family of the name. The family sold Lennox Castle to the city of Glasgow in 1927, and their chief seat became Downton Castle near Ludlow. The present chief is in the almost unique position of having his sister, Madam Kincaid of Kincaid, as a fellow member of the Council of Chiefs.