Leith, Narrative of Scottish Catholics, p. 183). Finally, after several manœuvrings, Lennox did set out on 21 Dec. from Dalkeith on his journey south (Calderwood, iii. 693). On reaching London he sent word privately to Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, that he would send his secretary to him secretly to give him an account of affairs in Scotland (Cal. State Papers, Spanish, ii. 435); and the information given to Mendoza was that Lennox had been obliged to leave Scotland in the first place in consequence of a promise made by King James to Elizabeth, and in the second place in consequence of the failure of the plot arranged for the rescue of the king from the Ruthven raiders on his coming to the castle of Blackness (ib. p. 438). On 14 Jan. 1583 Lennox had an audience of Elizabeth, who ‘charged him roundly with such matters as she thought culpable’ (Cal. State Papers, Scottish, pp. 431–2); but of course the duke, without the least hesitation, affirmed his entire innocence, and appears to have succeeded in at least rendering Elizabeth doubtful of his catholic leanings. Walsingham endeavoured through a spy, Fowler, to discover from Mauvissière the real religious sentiments of the duke; but as the duke had prevaricated to Mauvissière—assuring him that James was so constant to the reformed faith that he would lose his life rather than forsake it, and declaring that he professed the same faith as his royal master—Walsingham succeeded only in deceiving himself (Tytler, iv. 56–7).
Early in 1583 Lennox arrived in Paris, resolved to retain the mask to the last. On the duke's secretary being asked by Mendoza whether his master would profess protestantism in France, he replied that he had been specially instructed by the duke to tell Mendoza that he would, in order that he might signify the same to the pope, the king of Spain, and Queen Mary (Cal. State Papers, Spanish, ii. 439). For one reason he had not given up hope of returning to Scotland; and, indeed, although in very bad health, he had ‘schemed out a plan’ of the success of which he was very sanguine (De Tassis to Philip II, 4 May, in Teulet, v. 265). He did not live to begin its execution; but, in order to lull the Scots to security, he at his death on 26 May 1583 continued to profess himself a convert to the faith which he was doing his utmost to subvert. He also gave directions that while his body was to be buried at Aubigny, his heart should be embalmed and sent to the king of Scots, to whose care he commended his children. An anonymous portrait of Lennox belonged in 1866 to the Earl of Home (Cat. First Loan Exhib. No. 459). By his wife, Catherine de Balsac d'Entragues, Lennox had two sons and three daughters: Ludovick, second duke [q. v.]; Esmé, third duke; Henrietta, married to George, first marquis of Huntly; Mary, married to John, earl of Mar; and Gabrielle, a nun.
[Cal. State Papers, For., Eliz., Scot., and Spanish; Teulet's Relations Politiques; Forbes-Leith's Narratives of Scottish Catholics; Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot.; Reg. Privy Council Scotl.; Labanoff's Letters of Mary Stuart; Histories by Calderwood and Spotiswood; Moysie's Memoirs and History of King James the Sext (Bannatyne Club); Bowes's Correspondence (Surtees Soc.); Lady Elizabeth Cust's Stuarts of Aubigny; Sir William Fraser's Lennox; Douglas's Scottish Peerage, ed. Wood, i. 99–100.]
STUART or STEWART, FRANCES TERESA, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (1647–1702), ‘La Belle Stuart,’ born on 8 July 1647 (Sloane MS. 1708, f. 121), was elder daughter of Walter Stewart, M.D. Her father, who took refuge in France after 1649, and seems to have been attached to the household of the queen dowager, Henrietta Maria, was third son of Walter Stewart or Stuart, first lord Blantyre [q. v.] Her younger sister, Sophia, married Henry Bulkeley, master of the household to Charles II and James II, and brother of Richard Bulkeley [q. v.]; and her sister's daughter Anne, ‘La Belle Nanette,’ was the second wife of James, duke of Berwick (see Fitzjames, James; cf. Douglas, Peerage of Scotland, ed. Wood, i. 214; Lodge, Peerage of Ireland, v. 26).
Frances was educated in France, and imbued with French taste, especially in matters of dress. Pepys relates that the French king cast his eyes upon her, and ‘would fain have had her mother, who is one of the most cunning women in the world, to let her stay in France’ as an ornament to his court. But Queen Henrietta determined to send her to England, and on 4 Jan. 1662–3 procured for the young beauty, ‘la plus jolie fille du monde,’ a letter of introduction to the restored monarch, her son (Baillon, Henriette-Anne, pp. 80 sq.). Louis XIV contented himself with giving the young lady a farewell present. Early in 1663 she was appointed maid of honour to Catherine of Braganza, and it was doubtless her influence which procured for her sister Sophia a place as ‘dresser’ to the queen mother, with a pension of 300l. a year (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1663, p. 98). Lady Castlemaine affected to patronise the newcomer, and Charles is said to have noticed her while she was sleeping in that lady's apartment.
