Yet she herself seems hardly to have exploited her appearance. Most authentic portraits of Mary were commissioned in her teens by the French royal family—notably three or four of c. In Scotland she patronized musicians and poets but few portraitists. For twenty years her portrait was available almost solely on coins, which remained mundane objects, however well suited her classical profile was to them. During her English captivity she learned the value of the image as propaganda, and occasional miniatures were produced. The best known and most securely attested was one by Nicholas Hilliard c.
Mary's thirteen years in France made her effectively a Frenchwoman by upbringing. Her four Scottish Maries were cherished but kept at a discreet distance. Even after leaving France she felt personally closer to her French Guise and royal relations than to anyone in Scotland. In her will of , there was greatest warmth in the bequests to her French connections. Her last letter, written on the morning of her execution, was to her brother-in-law Henri III , and she asked to be buried in Rheims. This did not endear her to the Scots. French court culture was alien to Scottish nobles like Lord Ruthven , who masterminded the murder of Riccio.
He feared Mary's wiles, 'because she was trained from her youth in the Court of France' Keith , 3. Ruthven adhered to what he regarded as a straightforward code of honour and vengeance; when Mary outwitted him she was not playing fair. Nevertheless, a point on which Mary was most thoroughly educated was her dynastic position and destiny. This was not in itself French.
Queen of Scots from infancy, she was also, as the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor , poised to inherit the crown of England. While in France she used these positions to benefit France, but as personal ruler of Scotland she pursued indigenous Scottish policies. As claimant to the English succession she sought above all to make herself acceptable to the English political establishment. From the English perspective, Mary in Edinburgh represented a conservative candidate to succeed Elizabeth , with her personal Catholicism a crucial issue.
Her French background was unimportant; she was not seen as Charles IX's candidate. Only in her English captivity did her French connection regain diplomatic significance. In —51 Mary saw her mother for the last time, when Mary of Guise visited the French court, accompanied by a train of Scottish nobles, whose support she hoped to win in a bid for power in Scotland. Mary of Guise was finally granted the regency by the Scottish parliament on 12 April She was aided by having her daughter declared of age a year early, in December , allowing her nominally a personal choice.
The young queen also obtained her own household on 1 January The new regent set out to assimilate Scotland to France, a policy that would prove deeply unpopular. The official marriage agreement 15 April, 25—26 June was that Scotland would remain a distinct kingdom, although ruled by the same monarch. A separation was envisaged should the marriage produce no male issue a daughter would inherit Scotland but not France. Meanwhile 4 April Mary signed secret documents making the French crown her heir if she had no issue, and assigning her kingdom to France in pledge until the French were reimbursed for their military costs in Scotland and her own upbringing.
This in effect authorized a French military takeover of Scotland. The fifteen-year-old queen's acceptance of the duplicitous measures urged on her by those she trusted is unsurprising, but it is worth noting that she was now committed to two inconsistent policies. The simultaneous pursuit of incompatible policies would be a recurring phenomenon in her career.
With the death of Queen Mary of England 17 November , the Tudor blood of the 'queen—dauphiness' suddenly became an immediate issue. The legitimacy and religion of the new queen, Elizabeth , were doubtful and England and France were at war, although peace negotiations were in train. Wanting peace, Henri II was cautious about proclaiming his daughter-in-law queen of England , but the English royal arms came to pervade the already febrile French royal pageantry and iconography about Mary , to English fury.
Then Henri died 10 July , and Mary became queen of France. Power passed to her Guise uncles, possibly assisted by her new status. Mary's prestige had never been higher. But Mary's native throne was being rocked by a protestant and anti-French uprising — English military intervention on the side of the insurgents led to the treaty of Edinburgh 6 July by which the French occupying forces agreed to evacuate the country, leaving Scotland in the hands of a noble coalition that swiftly enacted protestantism in the Reformation Parliament August.
Her mother's death, of which she was told on 28 June, distressed her deeply; otherwise she was hardly involved in the revolution. She could theoretically have been married to her eleven-year-old brother-in-law, now Charles IX , but the new regent was the queen mother, Catherine de' Medici , who wanted to take the Guises down a peg. The French dynasty thus had no further direct use for Mary , and she ceased using the English arms or title. Now she had to find a new one—or rather, her Guise relatives had to find one for her. She spent her period of strict mourning with her grandmother Antoinette , and went to Lorraine in the spring.
Nor did any other suitable marriage emerge. Return to Scotland was thus an obvious move. Mary had already informed the Scottish estates in January that she hoped to return as soon as her affairs permitted, and that she would be willing to overlook the recent offences against her authority. She wanted to renew the Franco-Scottish alliance, but without French troops it would be a shadow of its former self. She might still use domestic Scottish forces to overthrow the protestant regime. The two alternatives—confrontation with the regime or acceptance of it—were put to the queen in April, with near-simultaneous visits from Catholic and protestant representatives.
John Leslie , future bishop of Ross, invited her to land at Aberdeen, where the earl of Huntly would raise 20, men to support her in restoring Catholicism.
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Lord James Stewart , Mary's illegitimate half-brother and one of the protestant leaders, promised her that she could retain a private Catholic mass if she were to work with the regime. Mary accepted Lord James's offer, which was in line with her existing policy. Lord James probably pointed out Huntly's unreliability: Leslie's plan would also have invited renewed English military intervention at a time when the Guises could offer no French support. Mary would have liked to restore Catholicism, but she was in no hurry and did not want to take risks.
Lord James's colleague, the secretary William Maitland of Lethington, worked out the details of the arrangement, and in June practical preparations for the journey began. Elizabeth refused Mary a passport through England changing her mind too late , so she went by sea. Her party, including the four Maries and three of her Guise uncles, arrived at Leith on 19 August Although the widowed queen's return was natural, Mary's co-existence with protestantism made it an experiment, even an adventure. Her interest in the English succession is obvious, but she also wanted to be queen of Scotland for its own sake.
Even in her later English captivity, she directed her main diplomatic efforts towards fostering a party of Scottish supporters who would restore her to her northern throne. On Mary's first Sunday, 24 August, she heard mass in her chapel at Holyroodhouse, protected by Lord James from the threats of more militant protestants encouraged by John Knox. A proclamation, perhaps improvised in response to the incident, was issued next day, commanding that no attempt was to be made to alter the present that is, protestant form of religion, on pain of death, until parliament should settle the religious question.
This proclamation and its reissues remained the legal basis for religion throughout her personal reign. She governed with the aid of her privy council , unlike previous Scottish monarchs who had regarded a privy council as a device for a royal minority, an alternative to royal government. Conciliar government may reflect the growing administrative sophistication of the Scottish state, but Mary's sex also mattered; men tended to insist that female rulers should take as much male counsel as possible. Lord James and Maitland were her leading councillors. The religious compromise was behind several governmental initiatives of the early personal reign.
In December , for instance, all surviving Catholic benefice holders were ordered to give up one-third of their income, to finance both crown and protestant ministers. Meanwhile, Mary herself tried four times to argue politely with Knox ; the effort usually reduced her to tears, but also exposed Knox's marginal position, since the protestant establishment represented by Lord James and Maitland was prepared to accept her. The hostility to the settlement of the earl of Arran , who had aspired to marry Mary on her return, was nullified when he became insane in Meanwhile the queen firmly suppressed radical anti-Catholic moves by the burgh council of Edinburgh October Her leading nobles and ministers owed their positions not primarily to their own queen, but to the English-backed revolution of — With Mary's return, it was not obvious how she would fit into this new establishment, but it was her ministers' task to find her a role in it.
The new-found Anglo-Scottish 'amity' had to develop traditions and mechanisms, and it was soon realized that Mary's position in the English succession was crucial. Scots and English alike assumed that the unmarried Elizabeth had to name a successor, and Mary's policy was to ensure that it would be her.
Her ministers, too, saw the dynastic issue as vital; it would be dangerous for Scotland if any other candidate were to succeed. So, only days after Mary's arrival in Scotland, she sent Maitland to England to ask Elizabeth for the succession. Elizabeth told him that she knew no better right than Mary's , but that she did not want to nominate a successor because it would undermine her own position, as she had learned when heir apparent to her sister. Maitland took this at face value, as an opening position in negotiations. With hindsight it can be seen that Elizabeth's refusal to name a successor was adamantine and non-negotiable; to all but Elizabeth at the time, a negotiated settlement seemed likely and Maitland saw clearly the lines that it should take.
Mary wanted Elizabeth's friendship, and an assurance of her throne after her death. Elizabeth wanted Mary's friendship, renunciation of her claim to be queen of England , and commitment to protestantism in Scotland and England. The treaty of Edinburgh had included a pledge by her not to bear the English arms or title, which might be interpreted as renouncing the succession.
Mary had not yet ratified this treaty, much to Elizabeth's frustration. Guided by Maitland , Mary presented her demands to Elizabeth as a simple clarification of the treaty. She would renounce the English throne in return for a clear promise of the succession. In England, however, things were not so simple.
Not only was there Elizabeth's personal touchiness to contend with, but English politicians were by no means agreed that if a successor were to be named it should be Mary. Her religion was a serious objection. Whether Mary would have converted to protestantism if offered the succession in return is a fascinating if ultimately unanswerable question. She might well have been swayed by the Guises' advice, which in was that conversion might be necessary. At any rate it suited neither queen to rule out concessions, and so the negotiations proceeded on what were perhaps false premises.
In spring it was agreed that the queens should meet at Nottingham in the autumn. But in July the English intervened to support the Huguenots in the deteriorating French civil war, while Mary remained neutral. The meeting was postponed—indefinitely as it turned out. At this point 24 July Mary reluctantly received the pope's envoy, Nicholas of Gouda , and told him firmly that the time was not right for Catholic initiatives. The queen now undertook the first of her extended progresses around her kingdom, a visit to the north-east August—November This demonstrated, perhaps deliberately, how far her wooing of the Anglo-Scottish protestant establishment had marginalized her Catholic subjects.
In order to advance protestantism in the north-east, Mary had decided to establish Lord James in the earldom of Moray , currently being administered by the Catholic earl of Huntly. Mary did not intend to destroy Huntly , but he was to be cut down to size. As the royal party approached his domains, Huntly staged a half-hearted protest which spiralled into open revolt. His small army was defeated at Corrichie 28 October and he died of natural causes in his captors' hands.
Huntly's downfall demonstrated to the English that Mary was willing to maintain protestantism, and further entrenched a domestic regime that could claim to be benefiting all concerned in it. Mary's frequent progresses became important governmental devices. She covered over miles between August and September , visiting not just the north but also the south and west.
In she reached Inverness again, travelling through the central highlands via Blair Atholl—a remarkable venture. In Inverness she had the court wear what passed for highland dress. Like her grandfather James IV , she was solving the problem of governing a decentralized kingdom by bringing her court physically to the localities. Most of the lords whom she visited would espouse her cause during the civil wars that followed her deposition.
Although Mary had failed to meet Elizabeth , she continued to pursue the English succession. She made a declaration renouncing the English throne in one of her parliaments , probably that of or Although this fell short of ratifying the treaty of Edinburgh, it did indicate that Mary was seeking only the succession. Yet to the English establishment, represented by Cecil , the prospect of Mary's succession was never welcome.
The Scottish establishment, represented by Moray and Maitland , recognized their dependence on England and hoped to keep their queen on a conciliatory course. One of the main ways in which Mary could demonstrate her protestant and pro-English commitment was to make an acceptable marriage. Yet her first major marriage project was spectacularly unacceptable to the English.
In February she reopened negotiations for the hand of Don Carlos. Maitland hinted to Philip that she might otherwise marry Charles IX , and Philip was initially beguiled. But by early he decided against the marriage. The Don Carlos project may have been a feint to put pressure on Elizabeth. If so, Elizabeth initially responded as Mary must have hoped.
She told Maitland in June that she would regard a Habsburg marriage as a hostile act, but would show all favour to Mary if she married suitably. When asked who a suitable husband would be, Elizabeth prevaricated and dropped vague hints. This remarkable proposal astonished the Scots and still puzzles historians. Was Elizabeth sincere, or was she using Dudley a man over whom she had complete control because he still hoped that she would marry him purely to deflect Mary from a continental marriage?
Mary, Queen of Scots - Wikipedia
There is no positive evidence for the latter theory, and in any case Dudley was definitely reluctant. He was created earl of Leicester 29 September to enhance his eligibility, but what Mary and her advisers wanted was a firm promise of the succession. Elizabeth would make only vague promises, which never elicited more than a polite but unenthusiastic response in Scotland. Randolph remained hopeful, but by early the plan was dead in the water.
When the Leicester match lost momentum, Elizabeth moved to stall Mary's marriage completely. She would ideally have wished to keep her permanently unmarried—a traditional Tudor policy towards potential dynastic rivals, which she had recently inflicted on Catherine Grey. With Mary she had less influence than with one of her own subjects, but she could still aim to stave off a marriage for a while. Thus she declared on 5 March that she had decided not to name a successor until she herself had either married or decided not to marry. This said to Mary , in effect, that she could retain English friendship only by marrying Leicester or one of her own subjects, or by remaining unmarried—and none of these would secure the English succession.
There remained one theoretical candidate for Mary's hand, however: Darnley's father, the earl of Lennox , had been exiled to England for opposing the Hamiltons in the s. Having been born in England, Darnley might even have a better claim to the succession than Mary , who was technically an alien at English common law—a minor point, but one that had been made against her in the English parliament. Although a Mary — Darnley match was highly undesirable to Elizabeth , because uniting the two claims would prevent her playing them off against each other, she assumed that she could always block it because Darnley was an English subject, and his parents were her dependants with lands in England.
Elizabeth had originally asked Mary to restore Lennox in June , as a gesture of Anglo-Scottish amity. Mary and her advisers had agreed, since the proposal mainly damaged the Hamiltons who were then in partial eclipse. Lennox returned to Scotland in September , and his restoration to his estates 16 October was confirmed by parliament on 13 December. He pressed for Darnley to join him, and this was agreed in January with the apparent blessing of both Leicester and Cecil ; he arrived on 11 February. There is no evidence for the popular theory that Elizabeth sent Darnley deliberately to trap Mary into an unwise marriage; the theory is also quite irreconcilable with the desperate English shifts and manoeuvres as the marriage loomed.
Darnley's release proved a major blunder. Mary first took up the idea of a Darnley marriage as a means of putting pressure on Elizabeth to retract her declaration of 5 March. During April she also conceived a personal attraction to him, though its exact nature—romantic, sexual, even maternal—is unknown. But such feelings would have led at most to light courtly dalliance if he had not possessed solid dynastic credentials.
On paper his credentials were impressive. His religion, like his father's, was also attractively ambiguous: Nevertheless, the marriage offered Mary advantages with the Catholic powers, keeping both France and Spain friendly; had she married a Habsburg she would have forfeited Valois support, and vice versa. Perhaps, though, Darnley won Mary's hand mainly by being, apart from Leicester , the sole remaining candidate in the field. Mary might have avoided disaster if she had married Leicester after all, abandoning her Catholic friends and resigning herself to a future of being bossed around by Elizabeth.
But if she wanted more than that, she simply had to marry Darnley and hope to overcome English displeasure. Randolph realized in mid-April that marriage to Darnley could be imminent. Formally, the nearest Mary ever came to the English succession was now, when his instructions came close to offering it if Mary were to marry Leicester.
Elizabeth also offered the duke of Norfolk or earl of Arundel , though with no assurances on the succession. But this was too little, too late. On 15 May Mary created Darnley earl of Ross , effectively announcing their engagement. This was bad news to Moray and Maitland , and also to the Hamiltons , traditional foes of the Lennox Stewarts. Lennox was attracting a new, heterogeneous party from all those dissatisfied with the regime to date.
Prominent among these were the earl of Huntly , now rehabilitated after his father's downfall, and James Hepburn, fourth earl of Bothwell d. Frantic at the way in which Darnley was precipitating a redrawing of the political map to their disadvantage, Moray and the Hamiltons broke with Mary during May and June, and made vague military gestures in the hope of securing English support. Seeing the danger, Mary carefully refrained from making open anti-protestant moves during the summer.
She reissued the proclamation of August , and made it clear that her mass remained a personal one. She nevertheless needed papal approval, and asked the cardinal of Lorraine to obtain a dispensation. By July she assumed that this would be on its way; in fact it was issued only on 25 September, but backdated to 25 May to cover the possibility that the marriage might already have taken place.
Her banns were called on 22 July and she was married in her own chapel at Holyroodhouse on the 29th. She also proclaimed Darnley king. The English reacted with open hostility. Their refusal to recognize the marriage or address Darnley by his new titles left Mary's diplomatic relationship with Elizabeth in tatters. On 16 July Mary even mentioned the possibility of warfare against 'oure auld inymeis' Keith , 2. The breach was a failure of English policy, but in the long run it would harm Mary more.
Encouraged by the English stance, Moray and the Hamiltons now rebelled openly. However, Mary kept the allegiance of most protestants, notably the earl of Morton , head of the Douglases. Sporadic military manoeuvres began in late August, later dubbed the Chase-about Raid. Mary's forces were greatly superior, and when the English saw that, they reluctantly abandoned the rebels to their fate.
On 6 October they all fled over the border, except Argyll who retreated to the highlands. The key to Mary's problems from onwards does not lie in her relationship with Darnley as such, nor in her religious policy, nor in factionalism among the Scottish nobles. All these played their part, but they were all exacerbated by the single overriding fact of the breakdown of her relations with the English establishment. This was linked to religion, since protestantism was an inextricable part of the Anglo-Scottish 'amity' that Mary's marriage had disrupted.
A hostile England would inevitably succour Mary's protestant enemies and make life awkward for her protestant friends. The playing of the protestant card by rebels would also tend to drive Mary towards a pro-Catholic policy; on the whole she resisted this, but on one occasion she did not. With Maitland's eclipse and Moray's rebellion, Mary had to choose new councillors, and did so mainly from a range of conservative protestants. Catholics were more prominent than before, and her largely Catholic household had more political prominence. Here one notorious adviser was David Riccio , a Savoyard musician who in late had become secretary for her French correspondence.
Riccio became a confidant, advising her on patronage, though it seems unlikely that he made policy as Maitland had done. During the Moray — Hamilton rebellion there was a brief flurry of appeals to Spain, France, and the papacy for financial and military support; Spain sent a subsidy, but it never reached Scotland. Darnley , for whom Mary had done so much, rapidly proved himself vain, foolish, idle, and violent, with a rare talent for offending people, including his wife.
He had been proclaimed king the day before his marriage, and Mary seems to have promised to get him the crown matrimonial in parliament. On realizing Darnley's incapacity Mary declined to grant him the crown matrimonial, causing him deep offence. By late October the marriage was already on the rocks—and Mary was known to be pregnant. After her bloodless victory over the Moray — Hamilton rebellion, the queen's instincts turned to conciliation. It accorded with Scottish tradition, especially from the nobles' point of view, that dissident nobles should eventually be reintegrated into the body politic.
In December she detached the Hamiltons from their allies by conditionally restoring them. This angered Darnley and Lennox ; Darnley suddenly became ostentatiously Catholic in protest at Mary's wooing of professed protestants. A parliament was proclaimed 18—19 December for March , to which the other exiles were summoned to be forfeited, but it was assumed that the threat would not be carried out. Until mid-January Mary continued to make conciliatory gestures.
In late January, however, Mary reversed her policy abruptly. She evidently felt secure in her position, and she was encouraged into an aggressive stance by the cardinal of Lorraine and others on the continent.
The impending parliament took on a new character when she announced that it really would forfeit the exiles. She also pressed ahead suddenly with open promotion of Catholicism, urging the nobles who had given her political support to attend mass with limited success and apparently planning to legalize the mass in the parliament. This plan horrified many leading nobles and royal officials, who had acquiesced only reluctantly in the ejection of Moray from power.
Mary, Queen of Scots
There was no consensus that he should suffer permanent forfeiture; and yet there was no guarantee that the parliament would cross the royal wishes. If Mary was going to be stopped, it would have to be soon and it would have to be sensational. About 9—10 February, the exiles' Scottish friends started to plan a coup. The plot's immediate aim was to discharge the parliament before it could forfeit the exiles and legalize the mass.
In the longer term it aimed to take permanent control of Mary's council, if necessary by coercing her. What has become known as 'the murder of Riccio ' was not primarily about him; it was simply a seizure of political power. Such a coup had to use the legitimating ideology of the ancient nobility whose right and duty it was to counsel the monarch. Since Mary was to be accused of taking the wrong advice, an adviser had to be sacrificed.
Riccio , a low-born foreigner, was a necessary but largely symbolic grievance. The plotters rapidly gathered wide support. Maitland co-ordinated the early stages, the leading noble involved was Morton , and Knox and Randolph approved. The most remarkable recruit was Darnley. Only a week earlier he had been ultra-Catholic, with the exiles his chief enemies. But the plotters fanned his jealousy of Riccio with insinuations against Mary's honour, and promised him what she had refused—the crown matrimonial. Darnley was largely a pawn, but as king he added legitimacy to the coup.
He and his father also increased the threat to Mary personally: It was Darnley who insisted that the assassination should be in the pregnant queen's presence. The parliament assembled on 7 March Mary heard but dismissed a warning of plots. On the 9th her supper-chamber at Holyroodhouse was entered unexpectedly, first by Darnley , then by a band of armed men led by Lord Ruthven and George Douglas Morton's henchman and Darnley's uncle.
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Darnley seized the queen, Ruthven harangued her on the iniquity of her recent policies, and Douglas and others dragged Riccio into the next room and stabbed him to death. The plotters barred the palace gates Bothwell and Huntly escaped out of a window and showed every sign of staying. Darnley publicly assured the Edinburgh burgesses that the queen was well, and ordered the parliament to disperse. Imprisonment of the queen in Stirling Castle was discussed. Mary met the crisis with courage and resourcefulness. She skilfully detached Darnley from the plotters, who saw that they could not now retain her in captivity; they were reduced to seeking a pardon for their offence.
This was drafted and redrafted, but Mary delayed signing. She manoeuvred the plotters into giving Darnley responsibility for her guards, and then staged a daring midnight escape to Dunbar 11 March , where she and Bothwell assembled an army that soon swept her back to power. She pardoned Moray and the other exiles, and the plotters fled to England where as Melville commented they might find the other lords' nests still warm. The plotters' immediate aim had succeeded. The parliament did not reassemble, there were no forfeitures, and the mass was not legalized.
Their long-term aim, though, had failed, and Mary was back in charge. Scottish politics now had to cope with the simultaneous presence in royal favour of two hostile and unpopular factions: Moray and his friends against Bothwell , Huntly , and theirs. Mary tried with difficulty to remain above the factions. The birth of a male heir enhanced the queen's dynastic attractiveness, and Patrick Adamson , a Hamilton client, published a Latin poem in Paris describing James as prince of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland —to the fury of the English government, who demanded Adamson's punishment.
Over all this loomed the problem of Darnley , in disgrace with everyone and yet still king. Governmental documents ran in the joint names of king and queen until the very day of his murder. Occasional efforts at reconciliation did not last. In early October Mary and her courtiers went to Jedburgh to hold a justice ayre for trials of border malefactors.
There she received news that Bothwell had been wounded in Liddesdale. On the 15th or 16th she, Moray , and others visited Bothwell at Hermitage Castle, a 50 mile round trip. On her return she soon became seriously ill. She vomited blood and green matter, was feverish, and repeatedly lost consciousness. On the 25th her life was despaired of, and she made a moving deathbed speech, but by early November she had made a partial recovery. The French ambassador attributed her problems to depression at her relations with Darnley , who had paid her a brief and unwelcome visit in Jedburgh.
Mary returned fully to public life on 20 November on her arrival at Craigmillar Castle near Edinburgh. According to a later account sympathetic to Mary and written by Leslie for Huntly and Argyll to sign , divorce was ruled out, and an understanding was reached that Maitland and others would pursue an unspecified solution that might offend the scrupulous Mary and Moray when they heard of it, but would receive parliamentary approval.
This may refer to a murder plot, to a scheme to put Darnley on trial, or perhaps most likely to something in between, such as a plan to have him killed resisting arrest. The court was now taken up with preparations for the prince's baptism at Stirling Castle. Ambassadors arrived from France and England. Three days of festivities ensued, the high point being the siege of a mock fortress.
The baptism itself 17 December was a Catholic service, so the English ambassador, Bedford , absented himself, as did most Scottish nobles including Huntly , Moray , and Bothwell. Darnley too stayed away, although he was still posing as a Catholic; he preferred a stance of open opposition to the court rather than exposing himself to its contempt. The festivities were the high point of the Renaissance culture that Mary had fostered at her court, sending a political message of reconciliation under a glorious monarchy.
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Alongside this splendid and public Catholic gesture, Mary was carefully making practical concessions to the protestant church; and on 24 December Morton and the remaining murderers of Riccio were pardoned and returned from England. The pardon was regarded as Bothwell's initiative. His reconciliation with Morton was ominous for Darnley , since Morton was likely to seek vengeance for his betrayal by Darnley at the time of Riccio's murder. One Catholic concession was the restoration of Archbishop Hamilton's consistorial jurisdiction 23 December.
This enabled him to grant divorces, though not for the queen that would have been reserved to the pope. Moray opposed the move, so Bothwell probably supported it; he may already have been foreseeing a need to call on the archbishop's services. In early Mary's career suffered a series of disasters culminating in her deposition. The first disaster was Darnley's murder—an abiding historical whodunnit, generating a mass of contradictory evidence, and with a large cast of suspects since almost everyone had a motive to kill him. One of these suspects is Mary , and here three main views have been taken.
The extreme anti- Mary case is that from late onwards she was conducting an illicit love affair with Bothwell , with whom she planned the murder. The extreme pro- Mary case is that she was wholly innocent, knowing nothing of the business. Please refresh the page and retry. H e was described as the 'lustiest and best proportioned man' that Mary Queen of Scots had ever seen, and now the true face of the notorious Lord Darnley has been reconstructed by Scottish scientists.
He was buried in the Royal Vault of the Abbey Church, Holyrood but the vault was raided between and and two skulls purporting to be Darnley's ended up in the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons. Until now, nobody knew which skull was real, a question made more difficult when the RCS skull was destroyed in the blitz. She discovered that the London skull is genuine and the version that has been on display in Edinburgh for years is a fake.
The finished work shows a young man with bright blue eyes and a head of light brown hair, and bears and uncanny resemblance to pictures from the 16th century. The writing During a holiday in Scotland, a small bookseller recommended Nigel Tranter as an author for all those who enjoy historical fiction.
The writing is very appealing, with lots of small facts and curiosities about Scottish History. I retraced the places I visited in Scotland and learnt some new information about the castles, monuments and landscapes. Makes me want to return to Scotland asap! Dec 10, Judith Paterson rated it liked it.
Not as enjoyable as the Bruce trilogy, but still interesting; a period of Scottish history I don't know much about. A reminder that for most of history a woman's lot, whatever her social status, was to do as she was told by men! Aug 19, Carol rated it liked it Shelves: This was a nice, quick read: There's a lot of politics and diplomacy, and some romance. It's also a decent portrayal of both the advantages and disadvantages of being a noblewoman in the late middle ages. Susie rated it liked it Sep 02, MaryLou Tarrant Rieves rated it really liked it Jan 14, Dave rated it liked it Nov 14, Ellen Bosworth rated it it was amazing Nov 24, Allen Martens rated it really liked it Dec 08, A B Alexander rated it really liked it Mar 28, Matthew rated it really liked it Jan 31, Lynntf rated it liked it Jan 29, Kelly rated it liked it Dec 12,