Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and his wish that "every haire in my heade for to be a wourthy souldiour". The Lennox Crisis (1558–1563) was a political dilemma in England that arose from the dynastic ambition of the Lennoxes: Matthew Stewart, the 4th Earl of Lennox, was third in line to the Scottish throne, and his wife Margaret Douglas, the Countess of Lennox, was a niece of Henry VIII (Henry's sister Margaret Tudor's daughter) and granddaughter of Henry VII, making her second in line to the English throne after Mary Queen of Scots, and her son Darnley after her, should Elizabeth not have been able
James VI and I Stuart, Lord Darnley. Both Mary and Darnley were great-grandchildren of Henry VII of England through Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII. Mary's rule over Scotland was insecure, and she and her husband, being Roman Catholics, faced a rebellion by Protestant noblemen. During Mary's and Darnley's difficult marriage, Darnley secretly allied himself with the rebels and conspired in the murder of the Queen's private secretary, David Rizzio, just three months before James's birth. James was born on 19 June 1566 at Edinburgh Castle, and as the eldest son and heir apparent of the monarch automatically became Duke of Rothesay