Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley not together in early 1545 and a letter of March 1566, from Mary Queen of Scots, indicates Darnley was then nineteen years old. Therefore the date 1546 would seem probable. A descendant of both James II of Scotland and Henry VII of England, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was heir to two royal houses, the House of Stuart and the House of Tudor, thus he had claim to both the Scottish and English thrones, a claim that may have cost him his life. In 1545, his father, Matthew Stewart, 4th Earl of Lennox was found guilty of treason in Scotland for
Earl of Darnley eleventh Baron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold in the Peerage of England. Lord Darnley served as a Lord of the Bedchamber to Frederick, Prince of Wales, but died unmarried in 1747, aged 31. He was succeeded by his younger brother, the third Earl. He had earlier represented Athboy in the Irish House of Commons and Maidstone in the British House of Commons. On his death the titles passed to his eldest son, the fourth Earl. In 1828 he presented a claim as heir-general to the dukedom of Lennox, but the House of Lords did not come to any decision on the