James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond

James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox KG (6 April 1612 – 30 March 1655), lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman. A third cousin of King Charles I of England, he was a Privy Councillor and key member of the Royalist party in the English Civil War. In 1641–42, he served as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. He spent five months in exile in 1643, returning to England to defend the city of Oxford for the king.[1]

James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond
James Stewart Duke of Lennox and Richmond, 1637, by Sir Anthony van Dyck
Born	6 April 1612 Scotland
Died	30 March 1655 (aged 42) Scotland
Allegiance	Kingdom of Scotland
Service/branch	Royal Scots Navy
Rank	Lord High Admiral of Scotland

Wife Mary Villiers, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox about 1640, Skokloster Castle

Arms of Sir James Stewart, 4th Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond, KG

Origins

He was the eldest son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox (1579–1624) by his wife Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton (c.1592–1637).

Career

He inherited the Dukedom of Lennox on his father's death in 1624 and in 1625, at the age of 13, was made a Gentleman of the Bedchamber to the newly crowned King Charles I, who knighted him on 29 June 1630 and invested him as a knight of Order of the Garter in 1633.

Dukedom of Richmond

The Earldom of Richmond had become absorbed into the crown in 1485 when Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, became King Henry VII. The Scottish connection to the Richmond title began in 1613 when James Stewart's uncle Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox (1574–1624), was created by King James I as Earl of Richmond and was later, in 1623, created by the same king Duke of Richmond and Earl of Newcastle.[2] However he died childless a year later when all his titles (excepting those inherited from his father, namely Duke and Earl of Lennox) became extinct.

The title Duke of Richmond was re-created in 1641[2] by King Charles I for Ludovic's nephew and eventual heir James Stewart, 4th Duke of Lennox, who was also granted Cobham Hall and the manor of Cobham, Kent, which became his main residence.

Marriage and children

On 3 August 1637 he married Mary Villiers, a daughter of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, by whom he had issue one son:

• Esmé Stewart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox (1649–1660) who died aged 10 in 1660, whereupon both titles descended to his first-cousin Charles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox (1638–1672).

Death and burial

He died on 30 March 1655 aged 42 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

See also

• Lord Bernard Stewart (younger brother)
• Siege of Oxford

Notes

1. Weiss Gallery, Illustrious Company, p. 20
2. McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "Richmond, Earls and Dukes of" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 306–307.

References

• Entry at ThePeerage.com
• Weiss Gallery, Illustrious Company: Early Portraits 1545–1720, 1998 (catalogue with commentary).

External links

Media related to James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond at Wikimedia Commons