Mary, Queen of Scots (82 page)

CSP Scottish

Inventaires

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Keith; Strickland

Register of the Privy Seal

CSP Scottish

Melville

McCrie

Papal Negotiations

CSP Scottish

CSP Spanish

Melville

CSP Spanish

Gore-Browne

CSP Scottish

Ibid.; Bedford later informed Cecil that this rumour was baseless.

CSP Foreign

Buchanan

Melville

State Papers in the Public Record Office: Domestic, James I. The elder Anthony Standen was a minor player in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Ruthven: Narration

Melville

Ruthven: Narration

Melville; Bothwell

Bothwell

Ruthven: Narration;
Cecil Papers
; Wright

Cecil Papers

Melville

Ibid.

CSP Scottish

Cecil Papers

Ruthven describes his illness as “an inflammation of the liver and a consumption of the kidneys”; it could have been cancer, or perhaps the consequence of heavy drinking.

Ruthven: Narration

Melville

Blackwood

CSP Scottish
; Ruthven: Narration; Keith; Labanoff; Knox; Buchanan

Melville

CSP Scottish

Harleian MSS.

Knox

Diurnal of Occurrents

Keith; Tytler:
History
; MSS. in the National Library of Scotland

Keith

Ibid.

CSP Scottish

Melville

CSP Scottish

Inventaires

A document alleged to be this dispensation is preserved at Dunrobin Castle, but may not be authentic.

Knox

In 1599, Jean married Ogilvy as her third husband.

CSP Scottish

Ibid.; Ruthven: Narration; Keith; Buchanan; Knox

Diurnal of Occurrents

CSP Scottish
; Miscellany of the Maitland Club (3 vols., 1833)

CSP Scottish

Ibid.; Cotton MSS. Caligula

Knox

CSP Spanish

Knox; Buchanan

Knox

8. “THIS VILE ACT”

Strickland:
Lives of the Queens of Scotland

There are several accounts of the events that followed. Two were by eyewitnesses: Mary’s version appears in two similar letters, one to Archbishop Beaton (2 April 1566, in Labanoff, hereinafter referred to as Mary to Beaton) and the other to Charles IX and Catherine de’ Medici (
CSP Venetian,
hereinafter referred to as Mary to Charles IX).

Lord Ruthven wrote his account in his 6,000-word Narration, which, after being edited by Cecil, was completed on 30 April 1566 in England (hereinafter referred to as Ruthven). It was written for the benefit of the English Privy Council and is obviously an attempt to portray Ruthven and his accomplices in the best possible light.

On 11 March, in Berwick, Randolph wrote an account of Rizzio’s murder (additional MSS., hereinafter referred to as Randolph), based on information given him by one Captain Carew, an English spy in Edinburgh, who had spoken with Mary, Darnley and others involved.

On 27 March, Randolph and Bedford wrote a joint letter to Cecil describing the recent shocking events (Cotton MSS. Caligula; Wright, hereinafter referred to as Randolph and Bedford).

In the 1570s, Claude Nau compiled a detailed account of the murder, based probably on Mary’s own reminiscences; it gives details that only she could have known.

Melville’s memoirs are those of someone who was well informed but was not actually an eyewitness, although he was at Holyrood at the time of the murder; his record of events is succinct and probably accurate.

There are very few discrepancies in all these accounts, and together they provide what is probably the truth about the events of 9–12 March, 1566.

Randolph

Ruthven; Randolph and Bedford

Register of the Privy Council
; Keith; Pitcairn; Ruthven; Gore-Browne

Melville

Ibid. Mary gives the time as 7 p.m.

Ruthven. Mary gives a similar account of this conversation, although less detailed.

Mary to Beaton

Ruthven

Mary to Beaton

Ruthven

The full text is given by Gore-Browne.

State Papers in the Public Record Office: Domestic, James I

Ruthven

Ibid.; Randolph and Bedford

Melville

Birrel

Randolph and Bedford

Ruthven; Mary to Beaton

Randolph and Bedford

Herries says Morton struck the first blow; Paul de Foix (
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet) says it was George Douglas.

CSP Scottish.
On 23 March, Drury reported to Cecil that one of Ruthven’s followers had arrived in Berwick with his arm bound up—he had been wounded whilst attacking Rizzio.

Ruthven; Randolph and Bedford

Ibid.

Mary to Beaton

Ibid. Randolph and Bedford say there were 60 wounds on the body. From 1722 onwards, a supposedly indelible bloodstain was said to denote the place where Rizzio was murdered, a myth that was still current in the 19th century. Today, a plaque marks the spot. In the 18th century, a richly inlaid dagger was discovered hidden in the rafters of Queen Mary’s Bath House; it may have been hidden there by one of Rizzio’s murderers.

CSP Scottish

Ruthven

Randolph and Bedford

Mary to Beaton

Herries

Ruthven

Mary to Beaton

Ibid.; Nau

Mary to Beaton

Randolph

Mary to Beaton

Nau

Melville

Ibid.; Bothwell; Ruthven;
Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet

Melville

Mary to Beaton

Nau

Ibid.; Ruthven

Melville

Nau

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.; Leslie

Nau

Ibid.

Randolph

Nau

Mary to Beaton. It must have been Darnley who informed her of this.

Nau

Cited by Sitwell

Nau

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ruthven; Randolph and Bedford

Ruthven; Keith

Melville

Mary to Beaton

Nau

Mary to Beaton; Randolph and Bedford

Ruthven

Ibid.

Ibid.

Mary to Beaton

Cited by Sitwell

Ruthven

Diurnal of Occurrents

Nau

Ibid.

Cited by James Mackay

Nau

Ruthven

Ibid.; Melville

Ruthven

Mary to Charles IX

Bothwell

Nau

Melville

Nau

Ibid.; Ruthven

Nau

Lennox Narrative

Nau. In her letter to Charles IX, Mary states that she and Darnley were attended by Traquair, Erskine and “two other persons only,” one of whom was Standen and the other, according to Randolph, “one gentlewoman,” who was probably Margaret Carwood, one of the Queen’s favourite maids-of-honour. Later that year, Mary got Darnley to knight Standen for his loyal service.

Nau

Armstrong Davison

Nau

Randolph

Memoir to Cosimo de’ Medici, in Labanoff

9. “AS THEY HAVE BREWED, SO LET THEM DRINK”

Because of its infamous associations with Bothwell, Dunbar Castle was dismantled on the orders of Parliament in 1568. Only ruins remain.

Bothwell

Mary to Charles IX

Randolph to Cecil, State Papers in the Public Record Office

Nau

Register of the Privy Seal; CSP Scottish

CSP Scottish
; Labanoff

CSP Venetian

Nau

Register of the Privy Council; Diurnal of Occurrents
; Ruthven

Ruthven

Nau

Melville

Ibid.

Mary to Charles IX

Melville

Randolph to Cecil, State Papers in the Public Record Office

Melville

Ibid.

Randolph says she lodged on the High Street.

Randolph and Bedford; Nau;
Diurnal of Occurrents

Lennox Narrative

Mary to Charles IX

Buchanan

Register of the Privy Seal

Nau

Melville

Cited by Gore-Browne

CSP Spanish; Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet;
CSP Foreign
; Keith

Mary to Beaton

Mary to Charles IX

Diurnal of Occurrents; Papiers d’Etat
, ed. Teulet; Buchanan

State Papers in the Public Record Office

CSP Scottish

Cited by Bowen

CSP Scottish

Cited by Prebble

State Papers in the Public Record Office

CSP Spanish

Ibid.

CSP Venetian

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Bothwell

CSP Scottish

Register of the Privy Council; Diurnal of Occurrents
; Pitcairn; Keith; Bothwell

CSP Scottish

Melville

Lennox Narrative

Register of the Privy Council
. Darnley continued to sign documents, or they were stamped with his sign manual, but he had no say in the formulation of policy.

From “Lord Bothwell,” in
English and Scottish Popular Ballads

Nau;
CSP Foreign

Register of the Privy Council
; Nau

During the siege of 1573, King David’s Tower was destroyed. In 1578, the Regent Morton refortified Edinburgh Castle and built the Half Moon Battery on the site of David’s Tower. In 1615–17, the royal lodgings were remodelled for James I, at which time painted decorations were added to the tiny room in which he was born; the panelling was not installed until 1848. The initials of James’s parents were probably placed over the doorway in 1617; they may have come from elsewhere. In 1650, Oliver Cromwell dismantled much of the castle’s fortifications. Since the Act of Union of 1707, Edinburgh Castle has been kept in good repair. The Scottish Crown Jewels and the Stone of Destiny are housed in the former royal lodgings.

CSP Scottish

Nau

Teulet;
CSP Scottish

CSP Scottish

Lennox Narrative

Labanoff

CSP Spanish

Original Letters

Inventaires

CSP Foreign

Randolph, in
CSP Foreign,
13 May 1566

Diurnal of Occurrents

Nau

CSP Foreign

Nau

Melville

Nau

Ibid.

Ibid.

Melville

Lennox Narrative

CSP Scottish

CSP Spanish,
18 May 1566

Nau

CSP Scottish
; Nau

Maitland to Randolph, in Cotton MSS. Caligula;
CSP Spanish

CSP Spanish; CSP Scottish

Barberini MSS., Barberini Library, Rome

Papal Negotiations

CSP Spanish

Ibid.;
Papal Negotiations

Egerton MSS.

Papal Negotiations

This had been Pius’s own See prior to his elevation to the Papacy.

Leslie

Papal Negotiations

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Knox

Additional MSS., Bodleian Library

Calendar of the Manuscripts at Hatfield House

Lennox Narrative
; Hume:
Love Affairs

Nau

Buchanan alleges that Mary ignored Darnley in her Will and that Bothwell not only featured prominently but was also appointed Governor of her child and of the realm. Mary’s Will was perhaps destroyed so that the lies in the libels would not be exposed. Moray, under whose auspices Buchanan wrote, must have been aware of the Will’s true contents, as he was to have been a beneficiary.

Inventaires.
Mary’s Will does not survive, but a testamentary inventory of the jewels she meant to bequeath, annotated by herself, still exists in the Register House in Edinburgh.

Clerk of Penicuik MSS., Register House in Edinburgh

State Papers in the Public Record Office; Chalmers

CSP Scottish

Nau

Melville

Nau

CSP Scottish
; Calderwood

Nau

10. “AN UNWELCOME INTRUDER”

Melville

Bannatyne Miscellany.
She was the wife of Sir Arthur Forbes of Reres.

Nau

Herries says he was born between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.; Melville had the news from Mary Beaton between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and claims he was the first to be informed. Nau and the
Diurnal of Occurrents
state that the Prince was born between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Buchanan says he was born a little after 9 a.m.

Cited by William Robertson

Diurnal of Occurrents
; Nau

Herries

Strickland

See Gent, and Antonia Fraser.

Nau

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Bothwell

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Ibid.

State Papers in the Public Record Office: Domestic, James I

CSP Spanish

Ibid.

CSP Scottish

Nau

CSP Scottish

Ibid. James’s cradle is now at Traquair House, Innerleithen.

CSP Spanish

Teulet

CSP Foreign
;
Cecil Papers

CSP Spanish

CSP Foreign
;
Cecil Papers

CSP Scottish

Ibid.

Ibid.

CSP Spanish; CSP Scottish

Nau says she was at Alloa on 28 July.

Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts

Ibid.

Register of the Privy Council

Register of the Privy Seal

Buchanan

Ibid.