Tomb of the Countess of Lennox

Images of Britain: Tomb of the Countess of Lennox, Westminster Abbey, London

The alabaster Tomb of the Countess of Lennox in Westminster Abbey in London was paid for by Queen Elizabeth I and also contains Lennox's son, Charles.

Margaret Douglas, the Countess of Lennox, was the daughter of Margaret Tudor (1489-1541), daughter of Henry VII and widow of James IV of Scotland.

Renown for her beauty, she led an eventful life. She was for a time a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn (the second wife of Henry VIII) and also spent time as a prisoner in the Tower of London.

Her second husband was Matthew Stewart, 13th Earl of Lennox. Their second son Henry, Lord Darnley married Mary Queen of Scots and was murdered in 1567. Darnley's father also met an untimely end, shot in the back at Stirling Castle in 1571.

The small kneeling statues are of her four sons, none of whom outlived her.