of Lennox, as nominal 5th Earl, when that title merged into the crown, as had done the Earldom of Richmond in 1485 on the accession to the throne of Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, as King Henry VII of England. These titles were re-granted by the Stewart monarchs to their beloved Franco-Scottish cousins, the Stewarts of Aubigny. History The lord of the manor of Aubigny-sur-Nère, a substantial walled town, was known in France as the Seigneur d'Aubigny ("lord of Aubigny"). It was a territorial title rather than a peerage title, and thus was able to be given by a Seigneur to a younger son, where for example the elder son already had a great estate and titles. The first ducal holder was Louise de Kérouaille, the French-born last mistress of King Charles II of England and Scotland. In 1684, at the request of Charles II, the French King Louis XIV created her "Duchess of Aubigny" in the Peerage of France. However, the letters patent creating the Duchy were not registered by the Paris Parliament, so the dukedom became extinct at the Duchess' death in 1734. In 1777, King Louis XV issued lettres de suranation, which restored the 1684 peerage to her heirs. Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond and 1st Duke of Lennox (1672–1723), her son by King Charles II, had predeceased her, but her grandson Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond, had already received a brevet de duc (i.e., a ducal patent), which gave him the honours of a duke at the French royal court. The French dukedom was confiscated during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1792–1803 and 1806–1814), but it was finally returned to Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, the nephew and heir of the 3rd Duke of Richmond, who also succeeded to the Dukedom of Aubigny according to ancient Salic law. The English coat of arms of the Lennox Dukes of Richmond display an inescutcheon of gules, three buckles or, which are their French arms as Dukes of Aubigny. These arms were created as a difference from the French arms granted in 1428 by King Charles VII of France to John Stewart of Darnley, 1st Seigneur d'Aubigny, 1st Seigneur de Concressault, 1st Comte d'Évreux, and Constable of the Scottish Army in France, the outstanding warrior who commanded the Scottish army in France that was instrumental in saving the throne of Charles VII from the English invasionary