Mary Queen of Scots

by Retha Warnicke

  2 Biographers usually accept the 13th as the date of Mary’s arrival because of questions raised about a letter of Henry II’s by W.M. Bryce, “Mary Stuart’s Voyage to France in 1548,” English Historical Review, 22, 1907: 43–50, but M.N. Baudouin-Matusek, “Mary Stewart’s Arrival in France in 1548,” Scottish Historical Review, 69, 1990: 90–5, discovered the draft of another of the king’s letters confirming her arrival on the 15th at St Pol de Léon after 18 days at sea.

  3 Lettres du Cardinal Charles de Lorraine (1525–1574), ed. Daniel Cuisiat, Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1998, p. 116.

  4 Baudouin-Matuzek, “Mary Stewart’s Arrival,” pp. 94–5.

  5 Lettres de Catherine de’ Medici, ed. H. de la Ferrière-Percy, et al., 11 vols , Paris: Imprimerie National, 1880–1943, vol. I, lvi, pp. 556–7.

  6 Armand Baschet, La Diplomatie Vénitienne: Les Princes de l’Europe au XVIe Siècle, Paris: Plon, 1862, p. 486.

  7 The Autobiography of Michel de Montaigne, ed. M. Lowenthal, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1935, p. 83.

  8 Anatole de Montaiglon (ed.), The Latin Themes of Mary Stuart Queen of Scots, London: Warton Club, 1855; see alsoQueen Mary’s Book: A Collection of Poems and Essays by Mary Queen of Scots, ed. Mrs. P. Stewart-MacKenzie Arbuthnot, London: Bell, 1907: 41–83.

  9 The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill, ed. Gordon Donaldson, London: Folio Society, 1969, p. 43.

  10 De Ruble, Première Jeuness e, p. 96.

  11 She seems to have obtained her information from a letter of Politianus, which was printed in a volume of his epistles at Paris in 1523 with a commentary by Franciscus Silvius. For an inventory of her library, which no longer exists, see Julian Sharman (ed.), The Library of Mary, Queen of Scots, London: Stock, 1889, p. 31.

  12 Cuisiat, Lettres, p. 154, dates her birth in 1551 and her older brother Henry on 31 December 1549. According to Mack P. Holt, professor at George Mason University, who surveyed reference books, including ones online, concerning these birth dates, the consensus is that she was born in 1552 and he in 1550.

  13 Marguerite Wood (ed.), Foreign Correspondence with Marie de Lorraine, Queen of Scotland from the Originals in the Balcarres Papers, 1548–57, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Scottish History Society, 1923–5, vol. II, p. li.

  14 B. Weber (ed.), The Marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots, to Francis the Dauphin of France, MDLVIII, Greenock: Grian-Aig Press, 1969.

  15 The Poems of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethingtoun, Knight, New York: A.M.S. Reprint, 1973, ll, pp. 55–60.

  16 George Buchanan, “Epithalamium upon the Marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France, afterwards Francis the Second,” in I.D. McFarlane (ed.), Renaissance Latin Poetry, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980, ll, pp. 140, 145–6, 151, 225.

  17 William Fraser, The Lennox, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Privately Printed, 1874, vol. I, p. 469.

  18 Gordon Donaldson (ed.), Scottish Historical Documents, Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 1970, p. 116.

  19 Ibid., pp. 120–4; Clare Keller, Scotland, England and the Reformation, 1534–1561, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003, pp. 202–3, noted that the commissioners failed to reach an accord in the treaty on the Scottish religious settlement because of disagreements about what it should be.

  20 She probably did not write “Verses on the death of Francis II.” See Arbuthnot, Mary’s Book, pp. 85–8.

  21 Henry Layard (ed.), Despatches of Michele Suriano and Marc’ Antonio Barbaro, Venetian Ambassadors at the Court of France, 1560–1563, Lymington: Huguenot Society of London, 1891, pp. 8, 11.

  4: RETURNING HOME, 1561–63

  1 PRO SP/12/23, no. 14, often cited for a second visit of Darnley to France, records only that he and his parents sent her letters of condolence. Rumors in Britain claimed he was in France, but no indisputable evidence exists that he was there.

  2 H. de la Ferrière-Percy et al. (eds), Lettres de Catherine de’ Medici, 11 vols, Paris: Imprimerie National 1880–1943, vol. I, pp. 585, 592.

  3 Henry Layard (ed.), Despatches of Michele Suriano and Marc’ Antonio Barbaro, Venetian Ambassadors at the Court of France, Lymington: Huguenot Society of London, 1891, p. 20.

  4 She was also in correspondence with other noblemen, such as Morton and Cassilis. See BL, Add. MS. 23108, ff.13, 16 and Add. MS. 1940, f. 65.

  5 Layard, Suriano and Barbaro, p. 33.

  6 George Buchanan, The History of Scotland from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, ed. J. Aikman, 6 vols, Edinburgh: Blackie, 1855, vol. II, pp. 382–3.

  7 The piece attributed to her, which ends “Qui as nourri ma jeune enfance,” was the creation of Meusnier de Querlon in the eighteenth century. Quoted in Imbert de Saint-Amand, Women of the Valois Court, New York: Scribners, 1895, p. 200.

  8 Layard, Suriano and Barbaro, p. 34.

  9 Songs and Sonnets of Pierre de Ronsard, ed. Curtis Page, Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1924: pp. 84–5.

  10 “Estrait des Memoires de Messire Michel de Castlenau,” in Samuel Jebb (ed.), De Vita & Rebus Gestis Serenissimae Principis Mariae Scotorum Reginae, Franciae Dotarie..., Londini: Woodman & Lyon, 1725, p. 455. He used the N.S. 17 February. He also claimed that they remained at Calais six days.

  11 A.A. MacDonald, “Mary Stewart’s Entry to Edinburgh: An Ambiguous Triumph,” Innes Review, 42, 1991: 101–10, for the sources.

  12 BL, Cott. MSS. Calig. BX, f. 158; PRO, SP 52/6, no. 81.

  13 Buchanan, Scotland, vol. I, p. 408.

  14 No systematic study of Scottish abductions has been done. For evidence, see, for example, Maureen M. Meikle, who accused the Homes and Turnbulls of this practice in “Victims, Viragos, and Vamps: Women of the Sixteenth Century Anglo–Scottish Frontier,” in John Appleby and Paul Dalton (eds), Government, Religion, and Society in Northern England, 1000–1700, Stroud: Sutton, 1997, pp. 177–9; Rosalind Marshall identified Sir Alexander Stewart, grandson of Robert II, as an abductor–husband in Virgins and Viragos: A History of Women in Scotland from 1080 to 1980, London: Collins, 1983, p. 20; Robert Agnew named Alexander M’Kie as an abductor–husband in his edition of TheCorrespondence of Sir Patrick Waus of Barnbarroch, Knight, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Ayr and Galloway Archaeological Association, vol. I, p. xxx. Most cases did not go to trial but one did in 1616, see Ancient Criminal Trials in Scotland: Compiled from the Original Records and MSS. with Historical Illustrations, ed. Robert Pitcairn, 3 vols, Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1833, vol. III–ii, p. 402. According to The Practicks of Sir James Balfour of Pitendreich, ed. Peter G.B. McNeill, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1963, p. 510, a man convicted of rape could not wed his victim because lower-class men might violate wealthy women or, indeed, filthy women might violate gentlemen. But if the rapist were not convicted, he could marry his victim with the king’s license and with her parents’ consent.

  15 For example, a conspiracy in 1567 involved the poisoning of the earl of Sutherland and the forced marriage of his 15-year-old heir, Alexander, the 12th earl with Barbara, the 32-year-old heir of George Sinclair, fourth earl of Caithness.

  16 Sara Mendelson and Patricia Crawford, Women in Early Modern England, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998, pp. 47–8.

  17 The contemporary reference for stepdaughter was daughter-in-law.

  18 John Guy, The Life of Mary Queen of Scots: My Heart is My Own, London: Fourth Estate, 2004, pp. 226–7, apparently depending on Randolph’s dispatch, claims that Bothwell met her at Dunbar in 1564. However, Guy overlooked the last part of the dispatch in which Randolph admitted the rumors of their meeting were false.

  19 Boscosel de Chastelard, Effusions of Love from Chatelar to Mary Queen of Scotland, trans. Samuel Ireland, 2nd edn, London: Crosby, 1808, p. 17.

  5: RULING SCOTLAND, 1563–66

  1 The French Wars of Religion: Selected Documents, ed. David Potter, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1997, pp. 13–17.

  2 David Sellar (ed.), Miscellany Two, Edinburgh: The Stair Society, 1984, pp. 86–131; W. Tod Ritchie (ed.), The Bannatyne Manuscript Written in Tyme of Pest, 1568, 4 vols, Edinbur
gh: Blackwood, 1928–30, 1934, vol. II, p. 256.

  3 Register of the Privy Council. See vol. II for Mary’s reign. It seems odd that Bothwell, a fugitive from justice, was included in the rotation.

  4 “Letters from Mary Queen of Scots to Sir Robert Melville; And Some Other Papers from the Archives of the Earl of Leven and Melville MDLXV–MDLXVIII,” Miscellany of the Maitland Club Consisting of Papers and Other Documents Illustrative of the History and Literature of Scotland, 3 vols, Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1834, vol. III, pp. 180–1.

  5 Thomas Craig, The Right of Succession to the Kingdom of England, trans. James Gatherer, London: printed by M. Bennet for D. Brown, et al., 1703, p. 84.

  6 Alison Weir, Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Murder of Lord Darnley, New York: Random House, 2004, p. 38, did cite his comments.

  7 The parliament called in 1566 was disrupted and is usually not counted.

  8 G.F. Barwick, A Book bound for Mary Queen of Scots, London: Bibliographical Society, 1901, p. 10. These Black Acts are not the same as the anti-Presbyterian statues of 1584 that are also called Black Acts.

  9 CSP Scot, vol. II, 108. In an undated note after her marriage to Darnley, Mary claimed that Leicester sent her a message through Randolph in which he accused Elizabeth of offering him simply to deceive her and distract her from other suitors. See Alexandre Labonoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. I, pp. 295–9.

  10 NLS MS 3657, ff. 11r–f.12r.

  11 A. Gibson and T.C. Smout, “Food and Hierarchy in Scotland, 1550–1650,” in Leah Leneman (ed.), Perspectives in Scottish Social History: Essays in Honour of Rosalind Mitchison, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988: 33–9, cited documents from James VI’s reign.

  12 George Barwick, “A Side-Light on the Mystery of Mary Stuart: Pietro Bizzari’s Contemporary Account of the Murders of Riccio and Darnley,” Scottish Historical Review, 21, 1924: 121–2. For information about her court, see Michael Lynch, “The Reassertion of Princely Power in Scotland and the Reigns of Mary, Queen of Scots and King James VI,” in M. Gosman, A. MacDonald, and A. Vanderjagt (eds), Princes and Princely Culture, 1450–1650, vol. I, Leiden: Brill, 2003, pp. 199–238.

  13 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. I, pp. 250–1.

  14 Barwick, “A Side-Light,” p. 118.

  15 The Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill, ed. Gordon Donaldson, London: Folio Society, 1969, p. 45; the edition by A. Francis Steuart (ed.), Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Halhill, 1535–1617, New York: Dutton, 1930, p. 107, says “properest and best proportioned long man.”

  16 NLS MS 3657, ff. 18r–20v.

  17 Andrew Lang, “New Light on Mary Queen of Scots,” Blackwood’s Magazine, 182, 1907: 24.

  18 Calendar of Letters and Papers Relating to English Affairs in the Reign of Elizabeth, Preserved Principally in the Archives of Simancas, ed. Martin Hume, 4 vols, London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1892–96, vol. I, pp. 412–20. Hereafter CSP Span.

  19 PRO, SP 52/10, no. 38. The first author to use the word, “nurse,” may have been Hilda Skae, Mary Queen of Scots, London: Poulis, 1905, 1912, p. 86.

  20 PRO, SP 70/77, ff. 1105, 1114–15.

  21 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. I, pp. 266–75.

  22 Godfrey Goodman, The Court of James the First, London: Bentley, 1839, p. 76.

  23 George Buchanan, The History of Scotland From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, ed. J. Aikman, 6 vols, Edinburgh: Blackie, 1855, vol. II, p. 414.

  24 Edward Burns, The Coinage of Scotland, 3 vols, Edinburgh: Black, 1887, vol. II, pp. 316, 326–48.

  25 Thanks to Mack P. Holt, professor at George Mason University, who identified Rambouillet’s first name as Nicholas.

  26 Andrew Lang, “The Household of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1573,” Scottish Historical Review, 2, 1905: 352 note; Labanoff, Lettres, vol. IV, pp. 216–20.

  27 William, marquess of Winchester, The Lord Marques Idleness, London: Hatfield, 1586, p. 85.

  28 Robert Keith, History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland from the Beginning of the Reformation to the year 1568, ed. J.P. Larson, 3 vols, Edinburgh: Spottiswood Society, 1844, vol. I, pp. 411–19. Ruthven claimed, for example, that Riccio was armed and that he had not told Mary her secretary was dead. See Patrick, third lord Ruthven, The Deathof Rizzi, Edinburgh: Goldsmid, 1890.

  6: CONFRONTING ADVERSITY, MARCH 1566–MAY 1567

  1 Alexandre Labanoff (ed.), Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires de Marie Stuart, Reine D’Écosse, 7 vols, London: Dolman, 1844, vol. II, pp. 334–8.

  2 Historical Memoirs of the Reign of Mary Queen of Scots and a Portion of the Reign of King James the Sixth by Lord Herries, ed. R. Pitcairn, Edinburgh: Abbotsford Club, 1836, pp. xv, 79.

  3 Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs, Principally at Rome in the Vatican Archives and Library, ed. J. M. Rigg, 2 vols, London: HMSO, 1926, I, p. 188. (Hereafter CSP Rome.) This was probably the French crown or ecu, which was worth about 6 English shillings. In some documents, the money was identified as scudi, which according to Thomas Mayer, Cardinal Pole in European Context, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000, pp. XV–3, was about three to a pound or slightly more than 6 shillings each.

  4 PRO, 52/10, no. 90.

  5 Robert Keith, History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland from the Beginning of the Reformation to the Year 1568, ed. J.P. Larson, 3 vols, Edinburgh: Spottiswood Society, 1844, vol. I, pp. 448–52.

  6 William Fraser, (ed.), The Lennox, 2 vols, Edinburgh: Privately Printed, 1874, vol. II, pp. 350–1.

  7 John Small, “Queen Mary at Jedburgh in 1566,” Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, N.S., 111, 1881: 210–33.

  8 Ida Macalpine and Richard Hunter, George III and the Mad-Business, London: Lane, 1969, pp. 197–266, and Norman Moore, History of the Study of Medicine in the British Isles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908, p. 102, for clinical observations.

  9 Keith, Church and State, vol. I, pp. xcvi–xcix; Labanoff, Lettres, vol. I, p. 398.

  10 David Hay Fleming, Mary Queen of Scots: From Her Birth to Her Flight into England: A Brief Biography, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1897, p. 422, n. 88, gives the provenance. For the queen’s letter dated 5 January 1569, enclosing the Protestation, see Labanoff,Lettres, II, pp. 265–7. See also Lord Hunsdon’s letter to Cecil in HMC, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Honourable the Marquis of Salisbury Preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, 20 vols, London: HMSO, 1883–1976, vol. I, p. 390.

  11 John Leslie, A Defence of the Honour of Marie Quene of Scotlande, 1569 (although the imprint is 1569, it was published in 1570.), Menston: Scolar Press, 1970, pp. 5–6, 38–9, 44–5; for Leslie’s 1580 manuscript, see William Forbes-Leith, Narratives of Scottish Catholics Under Mary Stuart and James VI, Edinburgh: Paterson, 1885, p. 118.

  12 Michael Lynch, “Queen Mary’s Triumph: the Baptismal Celebrations at Stirling in December, 1566,” Scottish Historical Review, 69, 1990: 1–21.

  13 In 1568 when Bizari, an intelligence agent for Cecil on the continent, wrote his version of the murders, he blamed Scottish politics and made no reference to an English conspiracy. He also admitted visiting Mary’s court in 1564 because Bedford had greatly praised her. See George Barwick, “A Side-Light on the Mystery of Mary Stuart: Pietro Bizari’s Contemporary Account of the Murders of Riccio and Darnley,” Scottish History Review, 21, 1924: 116–22.

  14 Keith, Church and State, vol. II, p. 496.

  15 William Robertson, The History of Scotland During the Reigns of Queen Mary and King James VI Till His Accession to the Crown of England, new edition, Aberdeen: Clark, 1847, p. 527.

  16 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. I, p. 398.

  17 Some documents cite the Bishop of Isles, who was John Carswell. Lismore was, however, the cathedral headquarters of Argyll, which was sometimes referred to by its diocesan seat. The Isles, which includes the Isles and Man, is sometimes called Surdreys or Sodor.

  18 Calendar of State
Papers Relating to English Affairs Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice and in Other Libraries in Northern Italy, ed. H. Brown, 38 vols, London: Lords Commissioners of her Majesty’s Treasury, 1864–1947, vol. VII, pp. 389–90. In another statement, he said the whole house was ruined. On his way home Moretta met with de Silva, who wrote to Philip that he believed the Savoyard suspected she was involved in the murder, but de Silva also admitted that Moretta was disappointed that she had not permitted him to see the king’s body. Clearly, in France he did not implicate Mary.

  19 Labanoff, Lettres, vol. VII, p. 108; William Sanderson, A Complete History of the Lives and Reigns of Mary Queen of Scotland and her Son and Successor, James the Sixth, King of Scotland, London: Humphrey Moseley, et al., 1656, p. 48, reported that Sir Roger Alston ( sic Aston) who accompanied James to England made the incredible statement that he and an earl of Dunbar (George Home) were with the king and escaped the house after smelling a lighted match. With sword in hand, Henry sent Alston to protect the prince while remaining to defend himself.

  20 Calendar of State Papers Relating to English Affairs, Preserved Principally at Rome in the Vatican Archives and Library, ed. J.M. Rigg, 2 vols, London: HMSO, 1926, vol. II, pp. 223–4. (Hereafter CSP Rome.) 21 Claude Nau, The History of Mary Stewart From the Murder of Riccio Until her Flight into England, ed. Joseph Stevenson, Edinburgh: William Patterson, 1883, pp. clxiii–clxvi, prints a procuratory of Lady Bothwell dated 20 March. Ironically, in the almost certainly forged Casket Letters and Sonnets, she wrote that she would put her son, her honor, and her soul completely in Bothwell’s power. See Sarah Dunnigan, Eros and Poetry at the Courts of Mary Queen of Scots and James VI, New York: Palgrave, 2002, p. 28, and my review in Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History, 33, 2004: 83–8.

  22 J. Irvine Smith, “Criminal Procedure,” in An Introduction to Scottish Legal History, Edinburgh: Stair Society, 1958, pp. 432–4; Julian Goodare, State and Society in Early Modern Scotland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 135.