Frances Stewart (née Howard), Duchess of Lennox and Richmond, Countess of Hertford (27 July 1578 – 8 October 1639)[1] was the daughter of a younger son of the Duke of Norfolk.

[2] Orphaned at a young age, Frances Howard "was married off"[1] to Henry Pranell, the son of a rich wine merchant and alderman and a patron of the Virginia Company, in early 1592.

The gentlewoman I haue a longe time loued dearlie, being bounde therevnto by her mutuall liking of me: litle or nothing I expected with her, considering she had litle or nothing to mainetaine and preferr her self; she being destitute of freindes and abilitie I thought it a most frindlie parte (with her good acceptance) to present her my selfe, and therbie to make her partaker of all wherwith God hath blessed me: wherbie (as latelie I vnderstoode) I haue (though not willfullie offended), yet ignorantly incurred your Lordships just displeasure, as not knowing that your Honor minded otherwise to haue preferred her ...[5]Pranell died in 1599, leaving his wife a wealthy widow at the age of 20 or 21.

"A woman of enormous social ambition",[1] she abandoned a suitor, Sir George Rodney, and secretly married the widowed Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford (1537–1621)[6] on 27 May 1601.

The marriage was performed clandestinely by Thomas Montfort without banns or license, for which Monfort was suspended for three years by Archbishop John Whitgift.

[6] When the secret marriage became public, the distraught Rodney shut himself up in a chamber at an inn, wrote a "large paper of well-composed verses" to the Countess in his own blood, and "ran himself upon his sword.

[8] In November 1603 Frances, Countess of Hertford wrote to Earl's steward James Kirkton about purchases to be made as Christmas and New Year's Day gifts.

[10] Lady Hertford appeared as Vesta in the queen's masque The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses (libretto by Samuel Daniel and music by Alfonso Ferrabosco the younger in January 1604.

According to Joseph Mead, this made Mary Villiers, Countess of Buckingham jealous and she decided to acquire the chain by sending a messenger to the Duchess, pretending the King had asked for its return.

"[17][18] "[A] typical Howard woman, fair-haired and beautiful",[19] Frances Stewart was painted by leading artists of the age, including Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, William Larkin (a protégé of her second husband, the Earl of Hertford), and Anthony van Dyck.