Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox

Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, was a Scottish nobleman and cousin of James VI and I. He enjoyed high royal favour, accompanied the king to England after the Union of the Crowns and held important court offices and estates.

Lennox was made a gentleman of the bedchamber and held major offices in both Scotland and England, including the hereditary admiralty of Scotland. His closeness to James VI and I made him an important figure in the court created by the Union of the Crowns, where Scottish nobles sought advancement within a wider British monarchy. He died without legitimate children, and the Lennox titles passed through the wider Stewart family.

In Nigel Tranter’s Past Master, the succession offers the greatest prize of Patrick’s career, and he is prepared to manipulate allies, enemies and family alike to remove every obstacle. His daughter Mary and her lover, Ludovick, Duke of Lennox, are caught inside this final campaign. In Nigel Tranter’s The Courtesan, Mary Gray, the unacknowledged daughter of Patrick, Master of Gray, inherits her father’s beauty, intelligence and instinct for political intrigue. She also inherits his passionate nature, and her forbidden love for the young Ludovick, Duke of Lennox, places private desire in direct conflict with dynastic and religious calculation. Coming of age in a Scotland divided by court factions and confessional fear, Mary understands that innocence offers no protection. In Nigel Tranter’s The Unicorn Rampant, For John Stewart of Methven, the illegitimate son of the Duke of Lennox, the royal visit is personally disastrous.