by Alison Weir
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 Parliam
ent 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.
CSP Scottish; Nau
Knox
Alloa Tower is still owned by the Erskines, but is substantially altered from what it was in Mary’s day. In the early 18th century, it was remodelled to match a nearby mansion, and in 1800, a serious fire damaged the roof and consumed many of the family heirlooms, among them what was said to be the only portrait of Mary painted while she was in Scotland. The Tower was restored in the 1990s and reopened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.
Lennox Narrative
Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts; CSP Scottish
CSP Spanish
Nau
Melville
Cotton MSS. Caligula; Selections from Unpublished Manuscripts; CSP Foreign; Keith; Illustrations of the Reign of Queen Mary
CSP Foreign
Lennox Narrative
Nau
CSP Scottish
Leslie
Ibid.
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
Raumer
Keith
Inventaires
CSP Scottish; Nau
The peel tower in which Mary stayed is the oldest part of Traquair House, and is now attached to the north end of the main block, which was built in 1642. At the end of the 17th century another wing was added. In the King’s Room is a bed slept in by Mary when she stayed with Lord Herries at Terregles Castle in 1568, just prior to her flight to Engl
and; this bed was brought to Traquair in 1890. Also at Traquair are a rosary, crucifix, reticule and purse said to have belonged to Mary, and a document dated 1565, bearing her signature and Darnley’s.
Nau
Ibid.
Papal Negotiations
CSP Spanish
CSP Foreign
Keith
Nau
Ibid.
Cited by Gore-Browne
CSP Foreign
11. “NO OUTGAIT”
Cecil Papers
CSP Scottish; CSP Foreign
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith
Papal Negotiations
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith
Du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, ibid.
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.; du Croc to Archbishop Beaton, in Keith; Papiers d’Etat , ed. Teulet
Du Croc to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith; Papiers d’Etat, ed. Teulet; Labanoff
Nau
The Privy Council to Catherine de’ Medici, 8 October 1566, in Keith; Teulet
Ibid.
Leslie; Keith
Papal Negotiations
Register of the Privy Council
Melville
Register of the Privy Council
Lennox Narrative
“The Answer of Moray,” 1569, in Keith
Archibald Douglas to Queen Mary, ibid.
Diurnal of Occurrents
Bothwell had shot Elliott in the leg with a pistol before being wounded himself. There are conflicting reports as to Elliott’s fate: some claimed he died of his wounds, but Sir John Forster stated that he escaped and recovered (Additional MSS., British Library). There is some evidence that he continued to pursue his lawless existence until 1590, when he may have died.
Buchanan
Cited by McKechnie
Nau
Keith
Cited by Gore-Browne
Teulet
CSP Scottish
Keith; Papiers d’Etat, ed. Teulet
Labanoff
Du Croc to Catherine de’ Medici, in Keith; Papiers d’Etat, ed. Teulet; Labanoff
Report of 12 November, in Papal Negotiations
Keith; Teulet
Cotton MSS. Caligula
Diurnal of Occurrents; CSP Foreign; Register of the Privy Seal ; Tytler: Scotland
Hermitage Castle still stands today, its courtyard in ruins but its outer walls intact. Although extensively restored in 1820, it is perhaps the best preserved example of a Border fortress.
CSP Scottish; Nau
A French 16th-century pocket watch and case were unearthed by a mole and found on this spot by a shepherd in the early 19th century. Both are now on display at Mary, Queen of Scots’ House in Jedburgh.
Lennox Narrative
Chalmers; Tytler: Scotland
Nau, writing in the 1570s, states she fell ill on the day after her ride to Hermitage, i.e., on 16 October; on 18 October 1566, the Council informed Beaton that the illness came on two days after the ride, i.e., on 17 October. As their account was written only a day later, the Council are more likely to be correct.
