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
Stewart of Darnley of the House of Stewart of Darnley were styled Earls of Lennox by the English Crown, although the King of Scots, in whose Kingdom the Earldom of Lennox lay, did not recognize their title. In 1544 Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox married Margaret Douglas, the granddaughter of Henry VII. Their sons Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Charles Stuart, 1st Earl of Lennox, were held by contemporaries to have a credible claim to the throne of England. Margaret Douglas was the fruit of the 1514 union of Margaret Tudor, Dowager Queen of Scots and elder daughter of Henry VII with