Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox

Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and 1st Duke of Richmond (29 September 1574 – 16 February 1624), Seigneur d'Aubigny in France, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman who through their paternal lines was a second cousin of King James VI of Scotland and I of England. He was involved in the Plantation of Ulster in Ireland and the colonization of Maine in New England. Richmond's Island and Cape Richmond as well as Richmond, Maine (formerly Fort Richmond), are named after him. His magnificent monument with effigies survives in Westminster Abbey.

He was the eldest son of Esmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (1542-1583), a Frenchman of Scottish ancestry and a favorite of King James VI of Scotland I of England (of whose father Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley he was a first cousin), by his wife Catherine de Balsac (d.post-1630), a daughter of Guillaume de Balsac, Sieur d'Entragues, by his wife Louise d'Humières.

On 14 November 1583, after the death of his father, he returned from France and was taken to meet King James VI of Scotland at Kinneil House. In December the king issued instructions for Ludovic's education and placed him in the royal household under the care of Mr. Gilbert Moncreiff. On 23 December 1583 he was appointed High and Great Chamberlain of Scotland and first Gentleman of the King's Bedchamber, as his father had been, with Alexander Erskine of Gogar, Captain of Edinburgh Castle as his deputy. The role included taking oaths of fidelity to the King from the other officers, ushers, and varlets of the Bedchamber and Wardrobe.

On 4 October 1590 he played cards with the king for stakes of a new "black castor hat lined with velvet". James however became angry with Lennox because he wished to marry Lilias (or Sophie) Ruthven, a daughter of William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie. James wanted him to marry Arbella Stewart and had Lilias Ruthven shut up in Wemyss Castle. Despite this, Lennox rescued his bride from the castle and married her the next day. After 10 days the king's rage subsided and the couple were allowed to come to court. After the death of Lilias Ruthven in May 1592, the English diplomat Robert Bowes heard that the king often received Lennox in his bed when he was away from the court and his queen Anne of Denmark.

In 1591 he was appointed to the post of Lord High Admiral of Scotland following the disgrace of Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell. On 13 February 1593 Lennox decided to play golf with Sir James Sandilands at Leith. On their way they met John Graham, a Lord of Session, who thought Sandilands was attacking him. The two groups of attendants fired on each other with pistols and John Graham and Sir Alexander Stewart, a companion of the duke, were killed.

On 6 May 1593 the Duke and 15 friends subscribed to a frivolous legal document swearing to abstain from wearing gold and silver trimmings on their clothes for a year, and defaulters were to pay for a banquet for all at John Killoch's house. This "passement bond" was in part inspired by cheap counterfeit gold and silver thread used in "passements great or small, plain or à jour, bissets, lilykins, cordons, and fringes" which quickly discoloured. The signatories included; Lord Home, the Earl of Mar, Lord Spynie, the Master of Glamis, Sir Thomas Erskine, Walter Stewart of Blantyre, Sir George Home, and Sir William Keith of Delny. At the tournament at Prince Henry's baptism in August 1594 Lennox rode in a Turkish costume.

Following his accession to the English throne in 1603, King James (now also known as James I of England) created him Lord Settrington and Earl of Richmond (1613), and Earl of Newcastle and Duke of Richmond (1623), all these titles being in the Peerage of England.

Lennox was a conduit for patronage and court appointments, and those hoping to place their allies at court would solicit his favour. However, Lennox claimed that placing more Scottish people in the king's household had become difficult. He wrote to Sir William Livingstone of Kilsyth who had asked for a place for a Napier ofMerchiston Castle;

"although the King has this long time promised Merchiston ever the next vacant place, yet many has been placed over him and in this has found great impediments; for believe that a stranger shall find great difficulty to obtain any such place so long as there is any English man that does aim at it; for it is thought by them all that there is already too many Scots here in such places."

On 9 February 1608 he performed in the masque The Hue and Cry After Cupid at Whitehall Palace as a sign of the zodiac, to celebrate the wedding of John Ramsay, Viscount Haddington to Elizabeth Radclyffe.

Lennox acquired the licence to mint copper farthings.

As part of the Plantation of Ulster, in 1608 Lennox was granted lands at Portlough in the Barony of Raphoe in County Donegal. The Pynnar Survey of 1618 records Lennox as the chief undertaker for 2,000 acres in the Portlough area and as represented locally by his agent Sir Aulant Aula. Newtownstewart in County Tyrone, now in Northern Ireland, may have been named after him. In the Muster Rolls of 1631 his nephew and eventual heir James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox is described as being an undertaker of 4,000 acres. Mongavlin Castle was built by his son Sir John Stewart, who was also Governor of Dumbarton Castle.

Ludovic was involved in the colonization of Maine in New England.Richmond Island and Cape Richmond, as well as Richmond, Maine (formerly Fort Richmond), are named after him.

In March 1614 thieves broke into his lodgings at Whitehall Palace and stole a gold collar set with pearls and diamonds worth £300, a silver warming pan, a silver inkstand, and some linen.

King James VI of Scotland had discussed with Thomas Fowler the possibility of the Duke marrying Arbella Stuart, but the scheme was not proceeded with. He married twice:

• Firstly, before June 1590, to Sophia Ruthven, a daughter of William Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie;
• Secondly, in about August 1598, he married Jean Campbell, a great-grand-daughter of King James IV of Scotland. Lennox wrote in April 1605 to William Livingstone of Kilsyth, who managed some of his Scottish estates, that he wished to "rid me of her" and "be quit of her." In December 1610 after Jean's death, her brother Hugh Campbell of Loudon complained that the Duke had taken her fine things to England, leaving her "drowned in great debt" with only an old silver basin, three little cups, and their children.
• Thirdly, on 16 June 1621, he married Frances Howard, a daughter of Thomas Howard, 1st Viscount Howard of Bindon.

By a mistress he had illegitimate issue:

• Sir John Stewart of Methven, governor of Dumbarton Castle and builder of Mongavlin Castle, who married Margaret Hamilton, a daughter of Sir Claud Hamilton of Shawfield, owner of a plantation in Ireland, a son of Claud Hamilton, 1st Lord Paisley and a younger brother of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Abercorn.

He died in 1624 aged 49, without legitimate issue, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, in the Richmond Vault in the Henry VII Chapel (that king formerly having been Earl of Richmond) above which survives his magnificent black marble monument by Hubert Le Sueur with gilt-bronze recumbent effigies of himself and his wife. The Latin inscription may be translated as follows:

Here lies the body of the most illustrious and most excellent prince, Ludovic, son of Esme Stuart, Duke of Lennox, grandson of John, nephew (sic, 2nd cousin) to the serene Prince King James I, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, Earl of Newcastle upon Tyne and Darnley, Chamberlain and Hereditary Admiral of Scotland, Lord High Steward of the Household, first Gentleman of the Bedchamber and Privy Counsellor to his sacred Majesty King James, Knight of the Garter, Ambassador from Scotland to France; a prince born to every thing that was great and good, but gone to far better. He lived 49 years, 4 months and 17 days. The most illustrious and most excellent princess Frances Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, daughter of Thomas Lord Howard of Bindon, son to the Duke of Norfolk by Elizabeth daughter of Edward, Duke of Buckingham, wife of Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, who, ever mindful of this her dearest lord, hath to him who so well deserved it, and to herself, erected this monument. She died the 8th of October A.D. 1639.

The Latin of the Biblical quotation (2.Samuel 3, 38: "Know ye not that a prince and a great man is this day dead") contains a chronogram forming the Roman numerals of 1623 (old style, 1624 new style), the year of his death.

His own English title of Duke of Richmond became extinct, but his paternal Scottish title of Duke of Lennox passed to his younger brother, Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox (1579-1624).

On 6 October 1613 he was created Baron of Settrington (of Yorkshire) and Earl of Richmond (of Yorkshire) and on 17 May 1623 Earl of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Duke of Richmond.