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Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox (1579 – 30 July 1624),KG, 7thSeigneur d'Aubigny,lord of theManor of Cobham, Kent, was a Scottish nobleman and through his paternal lines was a second cousin of KingJames VI of Scotland and I of England. He was a patron of the playwrightBen Jonson who lived in his household for five years.

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He was the younger son ofEsmé Stewart, 1st Duke of Lennox (1542–1583), a Frenchman of Scottish ancestry and a favourite of KingJames VI of Scotland (of whose father,Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, he was a first cousin), by his wife Catherine de Balsac (died after 1630), a daughter of Guillaume de Balsac, Sieur d'Entragues, by his wife Louise d'Humières.

On 9 February 1608, he performed in the masqueThe Hue and Cry After Cupid atWhitehall Palace as a sign of the zodiac, to celebrate the wedding ofJohn Ramsay, Viscount Haddington to Elizabeth Radclyffe.^[3]

At the death of his childless elder brother,Ludovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1574–1624), he inherited their paternal title of Duke of Lennox, the Dukedom of Richmond having become extinct. He was by then alreadyEarl of March (in the peerage of England) (1619) andBaron Clifton of Leighton Bromswold (in the right of his wife).^[4] He had become the 7thSeigneur d'Aubigny in France when his elder brother surrendered the title following their father's death.^[5][6]

In 1624, the year of his death, he was invested as aKnight of the Garter.

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In 1609, he marriedKatherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton, by whom he had eleven children, third cousins of King Charles I, for whom many of them fought and died in theEnglish Civil War:^[7]

• James Stewart, 4th Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1612–1655), eldest son and heir. He resided atCobham Hall in Kent (granted in 1606 to his uncleLudovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond (1574–1624), by his second cousin King James VI & I) and served asLord Warden of the Cinque Ports, based atDover Castle in Kent;
• Henry Stewart, 8th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1616–1632). He studied in the City ofBourges (the capital of the formerprovince ofBerry, in which was situated Aubigny) and later at Paris, then visited Venice with the statesmanRichard Weston, 1st Earl of Portland (father of his sister's husband) where he died at age 17, and was buried in the Church ofSanti Giovanni e Paolo, Venice;^[8]
• Francis Stewart (1616–1617), died in infancy;
• George Stewart, 9th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1618–1642), killed aged 24 fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War. He marriedKatherine Howard (d. 1650), a daughter ofTheophilus Howard, 2nd Earl of Suffolk, by whom he was the father ofCharles Stewart, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox (1638–1672), of Cobham Hall and ofRichmond House in London, the last in the male line of the Stewarts of Aubigny, who was the heir of his infant first cousinEsmé Stuart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox (1649–1660), the son and heir ofJames Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox (1612–1655), of Cobham Hall;
• Ludovic Stewart, 11th Seigneur d'Aubigny (1619–1665), who shortly before his death became acardinal;^[4]
• Lord John Stewart (1621–1644) killed aged 23, unmarried, fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War;
• Lord Bernard Stewart (1623–1645) killed aged 22, unmarried, fighting for the royalist cause in the English Civil War. For his war services, he was due to be createdEarl of Lichfield, but died before the formalities were completed, and the title was instead awarded to his nephewCharles Stewart (1638–1672), later 3rd Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox.

• Elizabeth Stewart (1610–1674), who marriedHenry Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel
• Anne Stewart (1614–1646), who marriedArchibald Douglas, Earl of Angus
• Frances Stewart (1617–1694), who marriedJerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland
• Margaret Stewart (1618–1618), who died young

He died on 30 July 1624 atKirby Hall, Northamptonshire, of the "spotted ague".^[9] He was buried, on 6 August 1624, inWestminster Abbey,^[10] in theRichmond Vault in the south-east apsidal chapel of the Chapel of King Henry VII^[11] (himself formerlyEarl of Richmond).

• 1579 births
• 1624 deaths
• Earls of March (1619 creation)
• Peers of England created by James I
• Dukes of Lennox
• Knights of the Garter
• Lord high chamberlains of Scotland
• Lord-lieutenants of Huntingdonshire
• House of Stewart of Darnley
• Patrons of literature
• 17th-century Scottish peers

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