Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Mary Queen of Scots’ Downfall: The Life and Murder of Henry, Lord Darnley > Status Update

‘she was a poor judge of character. Her choice of King Henry was disastrous, and by failing to conduct a proper investigation into his murder, she lost her throne. Her cosseted upbringing in France had left her ill-prepared for the intransigence of either the Scottish nobility or the Kirk. Both were questioning the divine right of her rule, but she lacked Elizabeth’s political astuteness.’

‘For those who argue that Mary had no advance knowledge of the conspiracy to murder her husband, the most difficult issue is to explain why she condoned a whitewash for Bothwell’s trial with no evidence being presented. All the early commentators accepted the view of the propaganda that she had been involved with him in an amorous attachment and wanted to avoid a proper investigation.’

‘Mary seemed too distraught to take control. Although she wrote to Lennox promising justice for the king, she took no immediate action to set up an enquiry, and the Council’s efforts were half-hearted. A reward of £2,000 Scots was offered for information with ‘an honest yearly rent’ and a pardon to anyone giving evidence, but no one came forward.’

‘The king must have been disturbed, probably by those lighting the fuse and, with his valet, Taylor, had tried to escape... He and Taylor lowered themselves on the far side with a rope and chair, but the king seems to have fallen and cracked a rib. They ran through the south garden and orchard, but were accosted by Archibald Douglas and his henchmen’

‘Although his absence seems to have been designed to imply doubt over the prince’s paternity, in reality he did not want the lesions and suppurating pustules over his face and body to be seen after another outbreak of his secondary syphilis. His affliction has been confirmed by scientific examination of his skull by Karl Pearson at the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1928.’

‘if they were only seeking to murder Riccio, there were ample opportunities away from Edinburgh, and it was Morton’s original plan to seize him clandestinely in his quarters at Holyrood. Yet it seems that the king was no averse to the consequential death of the queen and her unborn child. By murdering Riccio in her presence, there was a realistic expectation of shock causing a miscarriage’

‘In September 1565, while trying to focus opposition against Moray, Mary was embarrassed by the king’s very public visits to bars and male brothels in Edinburgh. When she arrived to try to curb his drinking at an Edinburgh merchant’s, he was so abusive that she left in tears. A lady of the court became pregnant by him, and Randolph reported that he was unworthy to be Mary’s consort.’

‘He came across as a man of culture, writing elegant verses to Mary on the qualities necessary for good government (no doubt in an effort to demonstrate that he was worthy of the Crown Matrimonial). If he had followed his own advice, all might have been well... On Mary’s instruction, the king’s name was given precedence over the hereditary sovereign on state documents and on coinage‘

‘she agreed to Darnley’s visit with its inevitable consequences. She seemed to believe that he would not agree to marry Mary while his mother was under her control, threatened with the loss of the family’s substantial English estates. That was to reckon without Margaret Douglas’s astute acceptance that the prospect of the Scottish and English thrones for her son was a prize worth any personal inconvenience’

‘Margaret was anxious about her husband’s continuing incarceration and declining health. Although she wrote to Elizabeth to seek better treatment for him, she received no reply. Under interrogation, Lennox had affirmed that his messengers sent to Scotland were seeking only the restoration of his estates. Yet the Lieutenant of the Tower wrote to Cecil of his ‘extreme passions’ at his imprisonment.’