Mary Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of Lennox (1622–1685), formerly Lady Mary Villiers, was the daughter of the 1st Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham

George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...

.

On 8 January 1634, at the age of 12, she married the 15-year-old Charles, Lord Herbert, eldest son of the 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery

Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke

Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and 1st Earl of Montgomery KG was an English courtier and politician active during the reigns of James I and Charles I...

, but was widowed in 1635 when her young husband died of smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

.

On 3 August 1637, she married the 4th Duke of Lennox

James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond

James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond, 4th Duke of Lennox was a Scottish nobleman. He was the eldest son of Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox and his wife Katherine Clifton, 2nd Baroness Clifton....

, who was created Duke of Richmond

Duke of Richmond

The title Duke of Richmond is named after Richmond and its surrounding district of Richmondshire, and has been created several times in the Peerage of England for members of the royal Tudor and Stuart families...

 in 1641.

They had two children:

• Esmé Stewart, 2nd Duke of Richmond and 5th Duke of Lennox
  Esmé Stewart, 2nd Duke of Richmond
  Esmé Stuart, 2nd Duke of Richmond, 5th Duke of Lennox was the son of James Stewart, 1st Duke of Richmond and Mary Villiers, daughter of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham....
  
  
• Lady Mary Stewart, married the 1st Earl of Arran
  Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran
  Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, Baron Butler of Cloughgrenan, Viscount Tullough was an Irish peer, the fourth son of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde-Life:...
  
  

After the death of her son, sometime before 1664, Mary married Colonel Thomas Howard (d. 1678) about whom little is known.

Maureen E. Mulvihill has built a case for Mary Villiers as the author of the poems published under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Ephelia, including Female Poems...by Ephelia (1679).

External links

• "Thumbprints of Ephelia" by Maureen E. Mulvihill, Princeton Research Forum, in ReSoundings, with biography of Mary Villiers