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
Earl of Darnley despatched to Ireland in search of forfeited estates, and in turn his father was William Bligh, a prosperous Plymouth merchant. John Bligh, 1st Earl of Darnley, married Theodosia Hyde, 10th Baroness Clifton (of Leighton Bromswold), great-granddaughter of Lord George Stuart, younger son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox, also 3rd Earl of Darnley (see the Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold and the Duke of Lennox for earlier history of these titles). He represented Athboy in the Irish House of Commons from 1709 to 1721. In 1721 he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Clifton of Rathmore,