by Alison Weir
Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office, CSP Scottish and Papal Negotiations
Book of Articles
Deposition of William Powrie, in Pitcairn
Bothwell
Pitcairn
CSP Spanish
Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office, CSP Scottish and Papal Negotiations
Buchanan. See the sketch of the murder scene in the Public Record Office for the positions of the bodies.
Herries; Knox
Buchanan; CSP Spanish
Knox
Buchanan
Pitcairn
Additional MSS.
The Book of Articles states that it was Bothwell, but it is more likely that Mary would have been informed of Darnley’s death before Bothwell was.
Bothwell
Buchanan
Bothwell
Clernault, in State Papers in the Public Record Office, CSP Scottish and Papal Negotiations
CSP Venetian
Bothwell
Ibid.; Knox
Knox. The Book of Articles alleges that Darnley’s body was “left lying in the yard [sic] where it was apprehended the space of three hours” before “the rascal[ly] people transported him to a vile house near the room where before he was lodged.” This is obviously a distortion of the truth.
Bothwell
Ibid.
Ibid.
Now in the Public Record Office.
Nau
Crawfurd: Memoirs
Papal Negotiations
Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, 15 February 1567
In his Detectio, Buchanan wrote that this was the custom in Scotland also, and de Silva reported that Robert Melville had left Mary “confined to her chamber, with the intention of not leaving it for forty days, as is the custom of widows there” (CSP Spanish). However, there is no evidence that either of the two previous widowed Queens, Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV, and Marie de Guise, wife of James V, ever observed this custom.
Melville
In his Detectio and The Book of Articles, Buchanan states that Mary slept till noon, but in his History, he claims that she slept most of the day. This is another example of the inconsistencies in his narratives.
Nau
Mary herself reported this in a letter written on 16 February 1567 to Mondovi, who in turn reported it to Alessandria (Papal Negotiations) .
Knox
The Book of Articles states that Darnley “remained 48 hours as a gazing stock,” but this cannot be true. His body was laid in state on 12 February, and it would have taken a day or so for the embalming processes to be completed.
Melville
Sloane MSS.
Keith
Keith; Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer
Book of Articles
Buchanan; Book of Articles; CSP Scottish
17. “NONE DARE FIND FAULT WITH IT”
Adam Blackwood, a Catholic supporter of Mary whose work was published in 1581 in France, is the only source to mention torture. He states that these deponents “had been extraordinarily racked” and beaten with hammers “to draw some one word against their mistress,” but they refused to say anything to condemn her.
The texts of the depositions quoted in this chapter are to be found in Pitcairn, Anderson: Collections, and Goodall. Three modern works that have proved very useful for this chapter are Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field, which is the result of ten years’ research and sets out to show that Darnley was responsible for the explosion, a theory that is now largely discredited; Gore-Browne: Bothwell, which reaches the same conclusion; and Thomson: Crime of Mary Stuart, which attempts to reconstruct the murder from the depositions.
CSP Scottish
For a fuller discussion of 16th-century gunpowder, see Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field.
Book of Articles
CSP Scottish
Melville
CSP Scottish. Hepburn says that Bothwell had 14 counterfeit keys; Ormiston mentions only 13. The lockable doors were as follows:
Front door from quadrangle
Side door in alley leading to cellar/kitchen
Downstairs door to stairs
Door to Queen’s garderobe
Door to Queen’s bedchamber (2 keys)
Door to downstairs passage to garden
Door to passage leading to Prebendaries’ Chamber
Door to Prebendaries’ Chamber
Upstairs door to stairs (used as cover for Darnley’s bath)
Door to King’s garderobe
Door to King’s bedchamber
Door to postern gate in Flodden Wall
N.B. There was no lock on the back door, which was bolted on the inside. Allegations that the conspirators had two keys to this door are spurious.
There were therefore 13 keys to the house.
In one deposition Paris says this incident took place on Friday, in the other, on Saturday. The latter is more likely to be correct. Paris made his deposition more than two years later, so an allowance must be made for a lapse in memory.
This close no longer exists; it led off the Grassmarket, which lies to the south of Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.
Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
The Book of Articles states incorrectly that Hob Ormiston was Black Ormiston’s father.
Hay claimed that Bothwell was walking up and down the Canongate while the powder was being transported, which took place between 8 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., but Powrie claimed that he did not begin shifting the powder until 10 p.m.
Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
Gore-Browne
Nau; Lennox says nothing about Paris giving a signal.
Nau
The accounts by Hay, Hepburn, Powrie and Dalgleish of Bothwell’s return journey to Kirk o’Field are almost identical.
Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field; CSP Scottish
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
CSP Venetian
CSP Scottish
It was later alleged that Bothwell himself had lit the fuse, but there is no evidence that he went into the house.
Calendar of Letters and State Papers . . . in Rome. This story was told by Hepburn just before his execution, to another prisoner, Cuthbert Ramsay, who repeated it in 1576 in Paris as evidence in support of Mary’s plea for an annulment of her marriage to Bothwell.
Buchanan
18. “THE CONTRIVERS OF THE PLOT”
Papal Negotiations
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
CSP Venetian
Sloane MSS.
Cited by Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
CSP Scottish; Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP Scottish; Melville
Spottiswoode
Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland
Teulet
State Papers in the Public Record Office; CSP Scottish; CSP Foreign
Cabala
Notably Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field, and Gore-Browne.
CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Keith
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish
State Papers in the Public Record Office; Tytler
Papal Negotiations
Bothwell
Papal Negotiations
CSP Spanish
Morton’s confession, in Pitcairn
CSP Spanish; Teulet
CSP Foreign
Papal Negotiations
Gore-Browne
Sloane MSS.
CSP Spanish
CSP Venetian
Report of Sir William Drury, in CSP Scottish
CSP Venetian
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
Diurnal of Occurrents
Pepys MSS.
19. “GREAT SUSPICIONS AND NO PROOF”
Buchanan
CSP Foreign
Buchanan; Camden
Melville
Inventaires
Keith
/> CSP Scottish; The Book of Articles is in the Hopetoun MSS. in the Register House, Edinburgh
Buchanan
Ibid.
Book of Articles
Lennox Narrative
Drury to Cecil, 19 February 1567, in CSP Scottish; Moray’s Journal, in Cotton MSS. Caligula. Mary’s surviving letters from this correspondence with Lennox are all in Scots, which suggests that they were not written by Mary herself but by her Council on her behalf.
Keith
Labanoff
Buchanan
CSP Spanish
Inventaires
Papal Negotiations
CSP Spanish
Ibid.
Drury to Cecil, CSP Scottish; Drury does not mention Hay.
Diurnal of Occurrents; Clernault, in Papal Negotiations . Knox claimed incorrectly that Darnley was buried in Holyrood Abbey.
Under Charles II the chapel royal was demolished and the royal remains removed to a new vault in Holyrood Abbey, which was now designated the new chapel royal. During the Glorious Revolution of 1688, a mob vandalised the abbey and forced open the royal vault but did not disturb the bodies. When the abbey roof collapsed in 1768, the vault was opened again and Darnley’s skull was removed along with that of Madeleine of France, first wife of James V.
Darnley’s skull was examined in 1798 and found to bear the marks of syphilis. After three changes of ownership, it was presented to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1869. See Bingham: Darnley.
By the 19th century, the royal vault was in a ruinous condition, and several of Darnley’s bones were removed; one was advertised for sale in a Harrogate newspaper. The vault has since been restored.
Papal Negotiations
Leslie
Diurnal of Occurrents
Ibid.
Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
State Papers in the Public Record Office
Buchanan; Book of Articles
Report of the King of Scots’ Death, in CSP Scottish
Keith
CSP Scottish
Antonia Fraser
CSP Scottish. Drury recorded that he passed through Berwick on 19 February.
Mahon: Tragedy of Kirk o’Field
Labanoff
Diurnal of Occurrents
Cecil to Sir Henry Norris, 20 February 1567, in the Cecil Papers
CSP Spanish
CSP Foreign
Ibid., report of 22 February 1567
Papal Negotiations
Anderson: Collections; Keith
CSP Spanish
CSP Venetian
Labanoff
Robert Melville to Cecil, 26 February 1567, CSP Scottish
Anderson: Collections; Keith; Labanoff
CSP Spanish
Ibid.
State Papers in the Public Record Office; CSP Scottish. There are several translations of this letter from the original French, which accounts for the various versions in different books. I have largely followed Froude’s translation
CSP Scottish. The Diurnal of Occurrents claims that it was also proclaimed on 27 February.
Letter of 28 February 1567, in CSP Foreign
Leslie
CSP Scottish
Keith; Sir Henry Killigrew to Cecil, 8 March 1567, CSP Scottish
Tytler
Drury to Cecil, 27 February 1567, CSP Foreign
Nau
Drury to Cecil, 28 February 1567, CSP Foreign
CSP Foreign
Papal Negotiations
Drury to Cecil, 28 February 1567, CSP Foreign
Bothwell
CSP Scottish; for the placard campaign, see also CSP Foreign; Birrel; Anderson: Collections
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
Killigrew to Cecil, 8 March 1567, CSP Scottish
Buchanan
Bothwell
Pitcairn; Anderson: Collections; Goodall
Register of the Privy Seal
Labanoff
Killigrew to Cecil, 8 March 1567, CSP Scottish
Bingham: Darnley; CSP Scottish. The two mermaid placards are now in the Public Record Office.
CSP Spanish
Register of the Privy Council
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
Teulet
Diurnal of Occurrents
Killigrew to Cecil, 8 March 1567, CSP Scottish
Ibid. Anthony Standen had returned to England by 15 March, when Mary, or her Council, wrote to Robert Melville in London, asking him to seek the favour of the English government on Standen’s behalf (Labanoff).
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts
Ibid.; Keith
20. “LAYING SNARES FOR HER MAJESTY”
Papal Negotiations
Ibid.
For Moray’s letter and communication with Killigrew, see CSP Scottish
CSP Foreign
State Papers in the Public Record Office; CSP Scottish
CSP Scottish
Register of the Privy Council; Anderson: Collections
Drury to Cecil, 20 March 1567, CSP Foreign
Drury to Cecil, 29 March 1567, ibid.
Teulet
Drury to Cecil, 30 March 1567, CSP Foreign
Papal Negotiations
Ibid.
Ibid.
CSP Venetian
Keith
Bothwell
Acts of the Parliament of Scotland; Diurnal of Occurrents
Drury incorrectly states that Janet Beaton, the Lady of Buccleuch, was cited as co-respondent (CSP Foreign).
CSP Venetian; CSP Foreign
CSP Scottish
Register of the Privy Council
Birrel
Drury to Cecil, 29 March 1567, CSP Foreign
The word “prevent” did not acquire its present meaning until the 17th century.
Labanoff
CSP Spanish
Ibid.
CSP Foreign
Ibid.
Drury to Cecil, 29 March 1567, CSP Foreign
Ibid.; Inventaires
Register of the Privy Council; Keith; Anderson: Collections
Hosack (see Book of Articles)
Labanoff
CSP Foreign. Cecil was aware of the divorce suit by 3 April.
CSP Scottish
Teulet
CSP Spanish
CSP Foreign
De Silva to Philip II, 21 April 1567, CSP Spanish
Ibid.
Teulet
Keith
Cotton MSS. Caligula
Mitchell
Book of Articles
Ibid.
CSP Foreign
Ibid.; de Silva to Philip II, 21 April 1567, CSP Spanish
Papal Negotiations
CSP Foreign
William Robertson: History of Scotland
Gore-Browne
21. “THE CLEANSING OF BOTHWELL”
Knox did not take part in this campaign; after Darnley’s murder, he had retired from Edinburgh to work on his History of the Reformation.
Letter to Cecil, 15 April 1567, CSP Foreign
Goodall; Keith; CSP Scottish
Drury to Cecil, 15 April 1567, in Tytler: Scotland
Ibid. James Anthony Froude, the eminent but biased 19th-century historian, had no time for Mary and was not above inventing evidence against her. He alleges that she was seen to give Bothwell a friendly nod from her window as he rode off to the Tolbooth, and also asserts that Bothwell was riding Darnley’s horse. These details do not appear in contemporary sources but have been frequently repeated by other writers.
CSP Scottish
CSP Foreign
Anderson: Collections
Keith
Buchanan
Keith
CSP Scottish
10 May 1567, CSP Scottish
CSP Foreign
Diurnal of Occurrents
CSP
Foreign
Bothwell
CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
CSP Scottish. Drury sent a copy of one of these answers to Cecil on 19 April (CSP Foreign).
Keith
Ibid.; Gore-Browne
Leslie and Nau also claimed that Bothwell’s acquittal was ratified by Parliament.
De Silva to Philip II, 21 April 1567, CSP Spanish
Acts of the Parliament of Scotland
CSP Scottish
The word “pit” meant “prison” in Scots.
CSP Foreign
For copies of the Ainslie’s Tavern Bond, see Cotton MSS. Caligula; Keith; Anderson: Collections; CSP Scottish
Buchanan says the Bishops added their signatures the following day.
Cotton MSS. Caligula
CSP Spanish
Both lists are in Keith.
Keith
CSP Scottish
Ibid.
Nau
Ibid.
Labanoff. This gives the lie to Throckmorton’s claim, made on 30 April in a letter to Leicester, that Mary and Bothwell had been married at Seton before she went to Stirling (CSP Foreign).
Forster to Cecil, 24 April 1567, CSP Scottish
Bothwell
Nau
State Papers in the Public Record Office; CSP Scottish
CSP Scottish
22. “WE FOUND HIS DOINGS RUDE”
Diurnal of Occurrents; CSP Scottish
Cecil Papers; Lang
CSP Foreign
Papal Negotiations; Labanoff
CSP Scottish
Cited by MacNalty
The letter was sent via Drury.
Cited by Plowden: Two Queens in One Isle
Buchanan
Estimates of the number of Bothwell’s men vary. Nau says there were 1,500, the Diurnal of Occurrents 800, Buchanan 600 and de Silva 400. The Diurnal is the most likely to be correct.
Gore-Browne
CSP Foreign
Calendar of Letters and State Papers . . . in Rome (Cuthbert Ramsay’s evidence, 1576)
Pitcairn; Anderson: Collections; Goodall
State Papers in the Public Record Office; CSP Scottish. Some historians wrongly ascribe this letter to Lennox, claiming it was the one he wrote to his wife on 23 April.
Register of the Privy Council; Diurnal of Occurrents
De Silva to Philip II, 1 May 1567, CSP Spanish
Diurnal of Occurrents; CSP Scottish; Melville; Gore-Browne. The exact location of the abduction has not been fully established. In an Act of Parliament of 1567, the place is referred to as being “near the bridges, commonly called Foulbriggs” (or Foulbridge), which Strickland identified with Fountainbridge, but this is only just south of the West Port and nowhere near the River Almond. The Diurnal says the abduction took place “between Kirkliston and Edinburgh at a place called The Bridges.” In the 17th century, there was a farm called The Bridges at the village of Over Gogar, which has now been swallowed up by Edinburgh’s suburban sprawl. Buchanan and Herries state that the location was “Almond Bridge,” while a pardon of October 1567 says “near the Water of Almond.” Birrel claims it was at “Cramond Bridge,” on the road between Edinburgh and South Queensferry. The likeliest location is a little way to the south of Cramond, in the area referred to in the text. (See Gore-Browne.)