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
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley private secretary, David Rizzio, was stabbed 56 times on 9 March 1566 by Darnley and his confederates, Protestant Scottish nobles, in the presence of the seven-months-pregnant queen in her dining room. According to English diplomats Thomas Randolph and the Earl of Bedford, the murder of Rizzio (who was rumoured to be the father of Mary's unborn child) was part of Darnley's bid to force Mary to cede the Crown Matrimonial. Darnley also made a bargain with his allies to advance his claim to the Crown Matrimonial in the Parliament of Scotland in return for restoring their lands and titles. When