Last Years: Good and Ill Together

This final chapter has three parts: marriage, letters, death and funeral. Lennox married the widow Frances Howard in June 1621, just a few weeks after her former husband’s death. This seems to have been Lennox’s only successful marriage. Numerous personal letters receive attention; they open additional insights into Lennox. While asleep, Lennox died unexpectedly on 16 February 1624, shocking the nation. His death was a major blow to the king and Prince Charles. Numerous writers responded to his death with elegies and tributes. James postponed the opening of Parliament, and he arranged for an elaborate funeral on 19 April. Hundreds of noblemen, clergy and others joined the funeral procession as it made its way to Westminster Abbey at which Lennox received exceptional praise.