Mary and Darnley
In the New Year Darnley, newly arrived in Glasgow, became ill with what was probably syphilis [1,2], although it was given out at the time that it was smallpox. Lord Bothwell clearly believed it to have been syphilis, correcting the manuscript for his ‘Affaires du Conte de Boduel’ in his own hand, from ‘verole’ (smallpox) to ‘roniole’ (syphilis). [3]
As we know, Mary was trying to divorce or otherwise rid herself of Darnley without prejudicing James’ succession to the throne. Darnley was still plotting against the Queen and others, including Moray [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
But Darnley was indiscreet as well as somewhat deluded and when the Queen heard about fresh machinations against her, she decided to move him away from those who would support his sad little plans. She transferred baby Prince James from Stirling to Edinburgh [10] and set out for Glasgow on 21st January 1567 [11] in the company of the earls of Bothwell and Huntly.
Bothwell had just returned from Whittingham, a Douglas property in East Lothian, where he had met with Morton, Maitland, and Archibald Douglas [10, 11]. This meeting, which has been used by Morton to incriminate Bothwell, most likely included a discussion regarding steps to be taken against Darnley. Morton, in his confession, states that Bothwell came to propose the King's murder, and says that he didn’t want to be involved. Bothwell says the opposite. Morton's words clearly echo those of Bothwell’s own memoir, written years earlier[3], and he probably merely transplanted Bothwell's words, as he remembered them, into his own mouth. Of the two, Bothwell had no quarrel with the king and was not threatened by any of the king’s plots, and since the discussion took place on Douglas land it was probably instigated by the Douglases. The outcome convinced Morton that Bothwell cared little for the fate of Darnley, but could not be safely involved in any of their schemes.
After escorting Mary part of the way to Glasgow, Bothwell returned to Edinburgh before heading a law-enforcing raid in Liddesdale on 27th January. [12, 13].
Meantime, Mary had persuaded Darnley to return to Edinburgh, perhaps with the promise of what Antonia Fraser so delicately describes as ‘resumption of full marital relations’ [10]. She planned to house him in Craigmillar Castle [14] or maybe Holyrood [12, 15], but Darnley was persuaded by James Balfour to lodge in a house belonging to his brother Robert Balfour [10, 12, 15, 16]. This house, known as the Old Provost’s Lodging, was just inside Edinburgh city wall, about three quarters of a mile from Holyrood, forming the south side of a quadrangle called Kirk o’ Field. Darnley arrived on the 31st January [11]. His own furniture was not available at such short notice, so his wardrobe master arranged for its later transport from Holyrood [17].
By now relations between Mary and Darnley appeared to be improved, according to letters written by them both [9, 14, 18]. Mary and her courtiers had a routine of spending time each day with Darnley, returning to Holyrood for formalities. On Wednesday 5th and Friday 7th February, Mary spent the night at Kirk o’ Field.
Sunday 9th February was to be Darnley’s last night at Kirk o’ Field, and he was to return to Holyrood early the next day [18, 19]. Sunday was also the day of the wedding of Bastian Page, one of Mary’s favourite valets, to Christina Hogg, one of her ladies. At four o’clock Mary and the Earls of Argyll, Huntly, Cassillis and Bothwell attended a banquet hosted by the Bishop of Argyll in honour of the Ambassador of Savoy. Moray had left Edinburgh that morning using his wife’s pregnancy as a convenient excuse [20]. Also absent were Maitland and Morton. The supper ended at nine and the Queen and Earls returned to Kirk o’ Field. [9]
At eleven pm Mary remembered or was reminded that she had promised to attend Bastien’s wedding dance and despite protestations from Darnley she left to do so. As she departed in darkness she commented that French Paris (one of her servants, previously in Bothwell’s employ) was dirty [14]. An hour later Bothwell and the Laird of Traquair spoke privately with her for some time.
Darnley had ordered his three great horses to be saddled and ready for a five am start [18]. He drank wine then retired, his valet Taylor sleeping in the same room and three other servants, including Nelson, sleeping in an adjoining gallery which overhung the town wall. The rest of his servants had been dismissed from the house for the night [16, 18].
At two o’clock there was an enormous explosion which could be clearly heard by Mary at Holyrood. She awoke and sent messengers to find out what had happened. The streets around Kirk o’ Field were filling with anxious people, who found that the Old Provost’s Lodging was completely reduced to rubble.[21, 5]
William Blackadder (brother of Edmund, would you believe?), who had been first on the scene, was arrested by magistrates immediately [16, 22]. Nelson was shouting for help from the top of the town wall. Darnley and Taylor were dead in the garden, outside the town walls. The king was naked beneath his night-gown, and next to him were a chair, a cloak, a dagger and a rope. Both men had been strangled - there was no evidence of burning or damage from the blast on either body [7, 20, 22]. All these details can be seen in a contemporary sketch of the scene sent to William Cecil in London by one of his spies [8, 10, 12, 23]
The Privy Council immediately announced a reward of £2,000 for the capture of the murderers [21]. Nelson was questioned, along with some women living near to the Old Provost’s Lodging, who said they had heard Darnley pleading for mercy - ‘Pity me, kinsmen, for the sake of Jesus Christ, who pitied all the world.’[5, 9, 24]
From 16th February, placards began to appear, naming variously Bothwell, Balfour, Bastien Page, Francisco Busso, Joseph Riccio and others as Darnley’s murderer [25]. By the end of February Bothwell was being accused by voices crying in the streets of Edinburgh at night.
No-one ever succeeded in stopping those voices and they still cry today. Bothwell was one of history’s losers, an object lesson in the power of propaganda. To this day anti- Marians blame Bothwell to implicate her in his ‘guilt’ whilst pro-Marians scapegoat him, exonerating her completely. Moray, the principle author of the Bothwell vilification, universally escapes blame even though the ambassadors of the time pointed to him as the chief suspect. [9, 19, 20]
1. Pearson K; ‘Skull and Portraits of Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and their bearing on the Tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots’. Biometrika XX, July 1928.
2. Armstrong Davison MH; The Casket Letters; A solution to the Mystery of Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. (Washington DC University Press USA, 1965)
3. Hepburn J, Earl of Bothwell; ‘Les Affaires du Conte de Boduel’. Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1829)
4. Keith R; ‘History of the Affairs of Church and State in Scotland down to 1567’. Ed JP Lawson. (Spottiswoode Society 1844-50)
5. Labanoff AI; ‘Lettres et Memoirs de Marie, Reine d’Ecosse’.
6. Calendar of Letters and State Papers relating to English Affairs - Spanish. Vol I, Elizabeth 1558 - 1567. ed and introd. MAS Hume. (PRO 1892)
7. Knox J; ‘History of the Reformation of Religion in Scotland’. Revised and ed Cuthbert Lennox. (Andrew Melrose, 1905)
8. Mahon RH; ‘The Tragedy of Kirk o’ Field’.(Cambridge University Press, 1930)
9. Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland and Mary Queen of Scots Vols I and II. Ed Joseph Bain (HM General Register House, Edinburgh, 1898, 1900)
10. Fraser A; ‘Mary Queen of Scots’. (Mandarin 1993)
11. Hay Fleming D; ‘Mary Queen of Scots from her birth till her flight into England’. (Hodder and Stoughton, 1898).
12. Gore-Brown R; ‘Lord Bothwell’. (Collins, 1937)
13. Calendar of State Papers Domestic 1547-1580. Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth. ed R Lemon. (Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1856)
14. Nau C; ‘The History of Mary Stewart, from the Murder of Riccio until her flight into England’. ed and intro. Revd J Stevenson. (William Paterson, 1883)
15. Calendar of State Papers relating to English Affairs (Rome) Ed J. M. Rigg (1916)
16. Pitcairn R (ed); ‘Criminal Trials in Scotland, from AD 1488 to AD 1624’. Vol I . (Bannatyne Club, Edinburgh, 1833)
17. Robertson J (ed); ‘The Inventories of Mary Queen of Scots’. (Bannatyne Club, 1863)
18. Mahon RH; ‘Mary Queen of Scots: A study of the Lennox Narrative’. (Cambridge University Press, 1930)
19. Calendar of State Papers Venetian, 1558-1580. Ed. Rawdon Brown and G Cavendish Bentinck (HMSO, 1890)
20. Buchanan G; ‘The Tyrannous Reign of Mary Stewart’. Trans/ed WA Gatherer. (Edinburgh University Press 1958).
21. Register of the Privy Council of Scotland Vol I, 1545-1569. ed J Hill Burton. (Register House, Edinburgh)
22. Maxwell J, Baron Herries; ‘Historical Memoirs of the Reign of Mary Queen of Scots’. ed R Pitcairn (Abbotsford Club, 1836)
23.SP/52/13. Public Record Office
24. Mumby FA; The Fall of Mary Stuart: A Narrative in Contemporary Letters (Constable, 1921)
25. Calendar of State Papers, Foreign Series, of the reign of Elizabeth 1566-68. Ed Allan James Crosby (Longman and Co, 1871)