Stewart of Darnley Stewart of Darnley Stewart of Darnley was 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, which led to the ultimate union of the two main kingdoms of Great Britain: England and Scotland. In 1565 the House of Stewart of Darnley was re-united with the Royal House of Stewart when Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley married his first cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, both being grandchildren of Margaret Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England, and hence
Edward Bligh, 5th Earl of Darnley 1818, a seat he held until 1830 for the Whig Party. In 1831 he succeeded his father in the earldom and took his seat in the House of Lords. He also served as Lord Lieutenant of County Meath between 1831 and 1835, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1833. Lord Darnley married the Hon. Emma Jane, daughter of Henry Parnell, 1st Baron Congleton, in 1825. They had three sons and two daughters: Darnley died of lockjaw after an axe injury when felling timber on his estate at Cobham Hall, Kent, in February 1835, aged 39, and