by Alison Weir
The rest of her story is well known. After ten months in captivity, she escaped to England, begging for military aid from Elizabeth. But Mary, with her claim to the English throne and her dubious past, was a dangerous and embarrassing guest, and Elizabeth, for her own security, had little choice but to keep her a virtual prisoner for nineteen long years. In 1569, an English inquiry into Mary’s complicity in Darnley’s death reached no certain conclusion, despite her repeated protestations of innocence; it was here that the incriminating Casket Letters, said to have been written by Mary to Bothwell, were produced by the Scottish Lords as evidence that the guilty lovers had plotted Darnley’s death. Mary firmly denied that she had written these letters, but she was never allowed to see them, nor to appear in person to defend herself. As the letters disappeared in 1584, and are known only through copies, historians are unable to pronounce conclusively on their authenticity. Nevertheless, there are good reasons for questioning their veracity and genuineness.
It is at this point in Mary’s story that we can see how various different perceptions of her have evolved. It was in the interests of the Scottish Lords who deposed her to disseminate convincing propaganda portraying her as an adulteress and murderess, a view that many people would still agree with today. Yet during her years of captivity in England, Mary, as the focal point of several plots to place her on Elizabeth’s throne, began to be revered as a Catholic icon, an image she herself consciously fostered. Even after being found guilty, on good evidence, of having plotted Elizabeth’s assassination, she appeared on the scaffold wearing red, the liturgical color of Catholic martyrdom, with the intention of announcing to the world that she was dying for her faith.
The emotive image of the Catholic martyr Queen had such a powerful impact on her followers that it wholly blotted out any memory of her previously dubious reputation, and gave rise to a long-standing tradition of semihagiographic historical writing that still has echoes in modern biographies.
That last tragic scene on the scaffold also inspired the romantic tradition of the tragic heroine, an image of Mary that was to flower in the art and literature of the romantic era, and that would later find expression in countless narrative paintings, historical novels, and films.
It was not until the late twentieth century that historians began to paint a new picture of Mary, showing her as a failed monarch who was unique in making her claims to another throne a priority over the country of which she was already Queen. Her choices of husbands were disastrous, and her religious policy inconsistent and unrealistic. In all, she was the architect of her own downfall. In fairness to Mary, it could be said that her downfall was inevitable, given the revolution that had taken place in Scotland; yet it was she herself who, unwittingly or not, provided the Lords with the means of bringing it about.
Thanks to these different views of Mary, her character remains elusive, obscured by the preconceptions and prejudices of many who have chosen to tell her story. The controversy still rages. Lady Antonia Fraser, in her definitive biography of the Queen, published in 1969, believed Mary innocent of complicity in Darnley’s murder, but there are several historians today who disagree with that view. They prefer to believe the so-called libels put about by Mary’s enemies, on the basis that these seemingly corroborate the circumstantial evidence against Mary. The moral outrage expressed by earlier writers hostile to Mary has been replaced by a creeping cynicism. Yet who is right? And can there ever be any certain verdict?
Guilty or not, the story of Mary Stuart reads like a Shakespearean tragedy. It is not surprising that Hamlet is said to have been partly based on it. This is a dark tale of vicious intrigue, ambition, lust, violence, and murder, all enveloped in mystery. At the center is this enigmatic woman, on whom rivers of ink have been spilt throughout four centuries, and on whom I have just managed to spill quite a lot more. Was she a murderess, or at least an accessory to murder? Having read my conclusions, you, the reader, must decide if you agree with them.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES AND REFERENCES
Full titles are given in the Bibliography; all other titles may be easily accessed from the Bibliography.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
INTRODUCTION
1 Bothwell
1. THE THREE CROWNS
Knox
Diurnal of Occurrents
Knox. Knox’s quotation was altered in the 1570s by the chronicler Robert Lindsay of Pittscottie into the more famous version of King James’s words, “It cam wi’ a lass, and it will gang wi’ a lass.”
Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP Scottish
The Letters of Henry VIII, ed. Muriel St. Clair Byrne, London, 1936
Lindsay of Pittscottie
State Papers in the Public Record Office
Raphael Holinshed: Chronicles (London, 1577)
Cited by Bingham: The Making of a King
Spottiswoode
Cited by Woodward
Cited by Thomson: The Crime of Mary Stuart
Melville
For a fuller discussion, see Smailes and Watkins
CSP Foreign
Cited by Woodward
CSP Scottish; Knox; Antonia Fraser. Mary never mastered Gaelic, the language spoken in the Scottish Highlands.
Brantôme
Ibid.
Melville; Jebb
Tytler: History of Scotland
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Herries
CSP Scottish
Cited by Gore-Browne
Blackwood
Cited by Gore-Browne
Ibid. 31 If the mummified skeleton at Faarvejle Church in Denmark is his, as seems probable.
Melville
CSP Scottish
Anderson: Collections
CSP Scottish
“A Declaration of the Lords’ Just Quarrel,” in Satirical Poems
CSP Venetian
CSP Spanish; see Antonia Fraser: Mary, Queen of Scots for a full discussion of the matter.
Fraser: The Lennox
Ibid.
Cited by Bingham: The Making of a King
Bothwell
CSP Venetian
CSP Scottish
CSP Venetian
Ibid.; CSP Foreign
2. “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN EUROPE”
Fraser: The Lennox; CSP Foreign; CSP Scottish; CSP Spanish
Cited by Black: Reign of Elizabeth
Melville
Diurnal of Occurrents
Brantôme
Cited by Steel
Cited by Watkins
After James VI became James I of England in 1603 and moved south, Holyrood Palace was rarely used. In 1650, following a serious fire, Oliver Cromwell ordered his troops to repair it. After 1671, Charles II completed James V’s original plan and built the other three sides of the main quadrangle, as well as the South Tower, which was designed to match the North Tower, in which larger sash windows were installed. James V’s chapel royal was dismantled at this time, along with other 16th-century state rooms; they were all replaced by new royal apartments. Under Charles II, the abbey church became the chapel royal, but in 1768 the roof collapsed, leaving the abbey in the ruinous condition in which it remains today.
At the time of the 17th-century restoration, the old King’s Lodgings on the first floor of the North Tower were remodelled and became the Queen’s Apartments, although their layout remains much as it was in Mary’s day. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Mary’s former rooms were occupied by the Dukes of Hamilton, and for a long time it was erroneously believed that the furniture in them had once been Mary’s. By the early 19th century, these rooms were ruinous, and they were not fully restored until 1976. The Jacobean frieze in the bedchamber, discovered in the early 20th century, dates from about 1617, when the initials of Mary and James VI were added to the original oak ceiling.
After George IV’s visit to Scotland in 1822, Holyrood Palace regained favour as a royal residence; since then, it has again become the of
ficial Scottish residence of the sovereign.
Cited by Erickson
CSP Scottish
CSP Venetian
Lennox Narrative
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Cited by Mahon, Hosack and Goodall; Lennox Narrative
Maitland was often incorrectly referred to by his contemporaries as Lethington, a title that in fact belonged to his father.
Cited by Black: Reign of Elizabeth
Cited by Skelton: Maitland
Cited by Stevenson
Bothwell
3. “POWERFUL CONSIDERATIONS”
Bothwell
Knox
Blackwood
Bothwell
Knox
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
Lord John Stewart died in 1563, aged only 31. Mary grieved deeply for him, saying that God always took from her those she loved best. Lord John left one son, Francis, who was created Earl of Bothwell in 1581 by James VI. He was a notorious sorcerer and troublemaker, and died in exile in 1612.
CSP Scottish; Knox
Bothwell
Ibid.; State Papers in the Public Record Office; Pitcairn
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
State Papers in the Public Record Office
CSP Spanish
Ibid.
CSP Scottish
CSP Domestic
Diurnal of Occurrents; Pitcairn; Knox
Bothwell
State Papers in the Public Record Office
Bothwell
Ibid.; CSP Scottish
Cited by Sitwell
CSP Spanish
Ibid.
Ibid.
CSP Scottish
Strickland: Lives of the Queens of England (Elizabeth I)
Knox
Brantôme
CSP Spanish
CSP Venetian
CSP Spanish
Teulet
Melville
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Report on the state of Scotland during Mary’s reign, sent in 1594 by Jesuit priests to Pope Clement VIII, and cited by Stevenson in his edition of the Memorials of Claude Nau
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.; Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP Scottish
Melville
Ibid.
Ibid.
The Lennox Jewel was purchased by Queen Victoria and is now in the Royal Collection at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh.
Cited by Gore-Browne
Bothwell
CSP Foreign
Melville
CSP Scottish
Melville
Cited by Keith
CSP Spanish
Teulet. Knox and Buchanan also took the view that Elizabeth supported a marriage between Mary and Darnley, a belief that was widely prevalent in European diplomatic circles. See Papal Negotiations and CSP Scottish .
Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP Scottish
4. “A HANDSOME, LUSTY YOUTH”
The first Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, had been born in March 1545 at the Palace of Stepney, which had been granted by Henry VIII to the Lennoxes, and died on 28 November that year. He was buried in the Parish Church of St. Dunstan, Stepney.
Papiers d’Etat, ed. Teulet
See Bingham: Darnley
The names of the four girls and one other boy who died young are nowhere recorded, so they must have died before baptism. The number of children, and their sex, are known only from the weepers on their mother’s tomb in Westminster Abbey.
Teulet
Pearson
Lennox Narrative; cf. Darnley’s own letters in various sources, chiefly Bingham: Darnley
CSP Scottish
Knox
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish
Historie of James the Sext
Nau
Historie of James the Sext
Melville
5. “MOST UNWORTHY TO BE MATCHED”
Melville
Lennox Narrative
CSP Scottish
Labanoff
Cited by Donaldson
CSP Scottish
Melville
CSP Scottish
Bothwell; CSP Scottish
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.; Keith
Keith
Bothwell
CSP Spanish
Melville
CSP Scottish
Melville
Buchanan
Cited by Sitwell
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Leslie: Defence; Anderson: Collections
Additional MSS.; Bannatyne MSS.
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; Keith
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish
Pitcairn
Teulet
Labanoff
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.; Throckmorton noticed Mary’s coldness towards Maitland.
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; Register of the Privy Council
Bothwell
Ibid.; Diurnal of Occurrents
Cotton MSS. Caligula
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.; Buchanan
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Randolph to Cecil, cited by Keith
Keith
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Melville
CSP Scottish
Knox
Ibid.
Bothwell
The Moray plot is well attested: see Randolph to Cecil, 4 July 1565, in Keith; CSP Spanish; Melville; Leslie; Knox; Labanoff; Lindsay of Pittscottie; Blackwood. Buchanan dismisses the alleged plot of his patron Moray against the Queen as existing only in her imagination, and asserts that Moray had been warned by Ruthven of a plot by Mary and Darnley to murder him at Perth, which was the reason why he had stayed away. This differs from Randolph’s contemporary account of events, which alleges that Darnley and Rizzio were plotting against Moray; Buchanan’s version is obviously an attempt to blacken Mary’s name.
CSP Scottish
Seton Palace was extended in the 17th century but largely demolished in 1789–90, when the present Seton Castle, designed by Robert Adam, was built. Only the vaulted ground floor remains from Mary’s time. The apartments she occupied were on the first floor. Seton Collegiate Church, which dates from c.1434 and stood beside the palace, still remains in the grounds.
CSP Scottish
Melville
Pollen: “Dispensation”
CSP Scottish
Keith
CSP Spanish
6. “THE CHASEABOUT RAID”
Diurnal of Occurrents
Melville
Randolph to Leicester, in CSP Scottish
Inventaires
Randolph to Leicester, in CSP Scottish
Household Expenses for 29 July 1565, in the Scottish Record Office
Randolph to Leicester, in CSP Scottish
CSP Scottish
A silver medal commemorating the marriage and showing both Mary and Darnley crowned and bearing the legend in Latin “Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,” is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; there are only two surviving examples of the “Henricus et Maria” silver ryal coin: one is in the British Museum, and another, in better condition, is in a private collection.
Book of Articles
CSP Scottish
Melville
CSP Scottish
Melville
Ibid.
Lennox Narrative
Knox
Register of the Privy Council
CSP Spanish
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Register of the Privy Council; Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP Scottish
Teulet
Keith
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; Diurnal of Occurrents
Knox
Buchanan
CSP Scottish; Diurnal of Occurrents
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Buchanan; Register of the Privy Council
Papal Negotiations
Labanoff
CSP Scottish
Register of the Privy Council
Buchanan
CSP Scottish
CSP Foreign
Letter cited by Strickland in Lives of the Queens of Scotland
Labanoff
Teulet
Nau
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; Diurnal of Occurrents
Cited by Wright; CSP Scottish; CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Papal Negotiations
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Ibid.
Teulet
CSP Scottish
7. “THERE IS A BAIT LAID FOR SIGNOR DAVID”
Randolph, in CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Lennox Narrative
Keith
Herries
Ibid.
CSP Spanish
Register of the Privy Council
CSP Scottish
Papiers d’Etat, ed. Teulet.
Cecil Papers
Lennox Narrative
CSP Spanish; CSP Scottish
Labanoff
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Cecil Papers
CSP Scottish
Ibid.; CSP Foreign. The new coins had on the obverse a design of a tortoise, representing Darnley, climbing a crowned palm tree, representing Mary. An example may be seen in the National Museums of Scotland. See Stewart: Scottish Coinage.
Register of the Privy Council. Randolph and Buchanan are incorrect in claiming that Darnley’s name was placed second on all documents. In all the Acts of the Privy Council, only one, that authorising the change of coinage, has the Queen’s name appearing first. It also appears first on documents on which Darnley’s sign manual was obviously added later.