Lord Darnley Lord Darnley (1545–1567) (later created Duke of Albany), better known as "Lord Darnley", a courtesy title, his father holding that title, who became the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, and thus father of King James VI and I (1566–1625). Together with Lord Ruthven and others, Darnley openly murdered David Rizzio in Holyrood Palace in March 1566. Mary thereafter distanced herself from Darnley. On 10 February 1567, Darnley died when his residence was destroyed by a bomb whilst his wife, Mary, Queen of Scots, attended a party. Lord Darnley and his groom were found dead at the scene with marks
House of Stuart usually rendering "w" as /v/. The spelling "Stuart" was also used by her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley; he was the father of James VI and I, so the official spelling "Stuart" for the British royal family derives from him. The ancestral origins of the Stuart family are obscure—their probable ancestry is traced back to Alan FitzFlaad, a Breton who came over to Great Britain not long after the Norman conquest. Alan had been the hereditary steward of the Bishop of Dol in the Duchy of Brittany; Alan had a good relationship with the ruling Norman monarch Henry I